Three-sublattice order in the SU(3) Heisenberg model on the square and triangular lattice

We present a numerical study of the SU(3) Heisenberg model of three-flavor fermions on the triangular and square lattice by means of the density-matrix renormalization group and infinite projected entangled-pair states. For the triangular lattice we confirm that the ground state has a three-sublattice order with a finite ordered moment which is compatible with the result from linear flavor wave theory (LFWT). The same type of order has recently been predicted also for the square lattice [T. A. Toth et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 265301 (2010)] from LFWT and exact diagonalization. However, for this case the ordered moment cannot be computed based on LFWT due to divergent fluctuations. Our numerical study clearly supports this three-sublattice order, with an ordered moment of m = 0.2-0.4 in the thermodynamic limit.

Linear flavor-wave theory for fully antisymmetric SU( N ) irreducible representations

Francisco Hyunkyu Kim, Frédéric Mila, Pierre Marcel Nataf, Karlo Penc

The extension of the linear flavor-wave theory to fully antisymmetric irreducible representations (irreps) of SU(N) is presented in order to investigate the color order of SU(N) antiferromagnetic Heisenberg models in several two-dimensional geometries. The square, triangular, and honeycomb lattices are considered with m fermionic particles per site. We present two different methods: the first method is the generalization of the multiboson spin-wave approach to SU(N) which consists of associating a Schwinger boson to each state on a site. The second method adopts the Read and Sachdev bosons which are an extension of the Schwinger bosons that introduces one boson for each color and each line of the Young tableau. The two methods yield the same dispersing modes, a good indication that they properly capture the semiclassical fluctuations, but the first one leads to spurious flat modes of finite frequency not present in the second one. Both methods lead to the same physical conclusions otherwise: long-range Néel-type order is likely for the square lattice for SU(4) with two particles per site, but quantum fluctuations probably destroy order for more than two particles per site, with N=2m. By contrast, quantum fluctuations always lead to corrections larger than the classical order parameter for the tripartite triangular lattice (with N=3m) or the bipartite honeycomb lattice (with N=2m) for more than one particle per site, m>1, making the presence of color very unlikely except maybe for m=2 on the honeycomb lattice, for which the correction is only marginally larger than the classical order parameter.

2017

Simplex solids in SU(N) Heisenberg models on the kagome and checkerboard lattices

Frédéric Mila, Karlo Penc

We present a numerical study of the SU(N) Heisenberg model with the fundamental representation at each site for the kagome lattice (for N = 3) and the checkerboard lattice (for N = 4), which are the line graphs of the honeycomb and square lattices and thus belong to the class of bisimplex lattices. Using infinite projected entangled-pair states and exact diagonalizations, we show that in both cases the ground state is a simplex solid state with a twofold degeneracy, in which the N spins belonging to a simplex (i.e., a complete graph) form a singlet. Theses states can be seen as generalizations of valence bond solid states known to be stabilized in certain SU(2) spin models.

2012

Dimerization and exotic criticality in spin-S chains

Natalia Chepiga

In this thesis we have studied the emergence of spontaneously dimerized phases in frustrated spin-S chains, with emphasis on the nature of the critical lines between the dimerized and non-dimerized phases. The main numerical method used in this thesis is the Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG). The DMRG algorithm is a relatively old and well established method for the investigation of the ground-state. In this thesis, we show how to use this algorithm to calculate the excitation spectra of one-dimensional critical systems, known in the context of conformal field theory as conformal towers of states. We have demonstrated that the method works very well for two simple minimal models (the transverse-field Ising model and the three-state Potts model), and we have used it systematically to identify the universality classes and the underlying conformal field theories of various one-dimensional spin systems. It has been known for a long time that the transition to a spontaneously dimerized phase in a spin-1 chain can be either continuous, in the Wess-Zumino-Witten (WZW) SU(2) level 2 universality class, or first order. By combining a careful numerical investigation with a conformal field theory analysis, we were able to detect in a frustrated spin-1 chain with competing next-nearest-neighbor and three-site interactions the presence of yet another type of continuous phase transition that belongs to the Ising universality class. In contrast to the WZW SU(2) level 2 critical line, at which the singlet-triplet gap closes, the Ising transition occurs entirely in the singlet sector, while the singlet-triplet gap remains open. The use of the standard DMRG approach, along the lines mentioned above, has allowed us to provide explicit numerical evidence for the presence of a conformal tower of singlets inside the spin gap. Moreover, according to field theory, a WZW SU(2) level k critical line can turn into a first order transition due to the presence of a marginal operator in the WZW SU(2) level k model. A careful investigation of the conformal towers along the critical lines has allowed us to find the precise location of this point in both S=1 and S=3/2 chains. We have also shown that the nature of the continuous dimerization transitions is related to the topological properties of the corresponding phases, and that the phase diagrams of various frustrated spin chains can be effectively extracted by looking at the local topological order parameter - the degeneracy of the lowest state in the entanglement spectrum. When coupled with the conformal field theory of open systems, DMRG appears to be an extremely powerful tool to characterize not only the phase diagram and the ground-state correlations of quantum one-dimensional systems, but also the excitation spectrum and the conformal structure along critical lines.

EPFL2017

Dimerization and exotic criticality in spin-S chains

Natalia Chepiga

EPFL2017