Lattice symmetries and regular magnetic orders in classical frustrated antiferromagnets

We consider some classical and frustrated lattice spin models with global O(3) spin symmetry. No general analytical method to find a ground state exists when the spin dependence of the Hamiltonian is more than quadratic (i.e., beyond the Heisenberg model) and/or when the lattice has more than one site per unit cell. To deal with these cases, we introduce a family of variational spin configurations, dubbed “regular magnetic orders” (RMO’s), which respect all the lattice symmetries modulo global O(3) spin transformations (rotations and/or spin flips). The construction of these states is made explicit through a group-theoretical approach, and all the RMO’s on the square, triangular, honeycomb, and kagome lattices are listed. Their equal-time structure factors and powder averages are shown for comparison with experiments. Well known Néel states with one, two, or three sublattices on various lattices are RMO’s, but the RMO’s also encompass exotic nonplanar states with cubic, tetrahedral, or cuboctahedral geometry of the T=0 order parameter. Regardless of the details of the Hamiltonian (with the same symmetry group), a large fraction of these RMO’s are energetically stationary with respect to small deviations of the spins. In fact, these RMO’s appear as exact ground states in large domains of parameter space of simple models that we have considered. As examples, we display the variational phase diagrams of the J1-J2-J3 Heisenberg model on all the previous lattices as well as that of the J1-J2-K ring-exchange model on square and triangular lattices.

Ground states and excitations of frustrated magnetic systems, from the classical limit to the quantum case

The first part of this thesis is devoted to classical magnetic systems. A method for an exhaustive search of states that do not break any spatial symmetry on a given lattice is presented. New Néel states on the kagome lattice are described. Their static structure factors give a way to analyze experimental results. Some non-coplanar spin orders are the only ground states of Heisenberg Hamiltonians. The chirality is a discrete order parameter and give rise to a finite temperature phase transition, studied on a toy model. We show that Z2 topological defects proliferate near chirality domain walls. The order of the transition (first order or Ising like) depends on the spin interactions. The Schwinger boson mean-field theory (SBMFT) allows us to link classical and quantum spin physics: long-range ordered and disordered phases as topological spin liquids can be described in this frame. Symmetry and the way to impose them are analyzed. Different phases are distinguished by their fluxes. These are gauge invariant quantities having a signification as well in a quantum system as in the classical limit. Visons are quantum excitations that change fluxes. Thus, the Z2 vorticies are their classical limit. By relaxing some symmetry constraints, chiral phases are obtained, whose classical limit sends back to the first chapter of this thesis, and whose disordered phase gives chiral spin liquids. The example of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction on the kagome lattice is studied.

LPTMC, Paris VI2010

A variational investigation of the SU(N) Heisenberg model in antisymmetric irreducible representations

Jérôme Dufour

Motivated by recent experimental progress in the context of ultra-cold multi-colour fermionic atoms in optical lattices, this thesis investigates the properties of the antiferromagnetic SU(N) Heisenberg models with fully antisymmetric irreducible representations labelled by a Young tableau with

m

boxes on each site of various lattices. Thanks to an intensive use of variational Monte Carlo method based on Gutzwiller projected fermionic wave functions, we aim to determine the ground state and its related properties of systems which are beyond the capabilities of other numerical methods. This typically means that we will study large lattices with many particles per site for

N>2

. The first part of this thesis will introduce the basic theoretical tools connected to the SU(N) Heisenberg model. A very short review of group theory introducing Young tableaux, will clarify the concept of fully antisymmetric irreducible representation of the SU(N) Lie algebra. Some properties of the Heisenberg model will be discussed and a mean-field solution will be given. The numerical methods used during this thesis and their limitations wil also be introduced. We will investigate the properties of 1-dimensional systems in the second part of this work. In particular, the chains have been studied for arbitrary

N

and

m

with non-abelian bosonisation leading to predictions about the nature of the ground state (gapped or critical) in most but not all cases. We have been able to verify these predictions for a representative number of cases with

N\leq10

and

m\leq N/2

, and we have shown that the opening of a gap is associated with a spontaneous dimerisation or trimerisation depending on the value of

m

and

N

. We have also investigated the marginal cases, where non-abelian bosonisation did not lead to any prediction. In these cases, variational Monte Carlo predicts that the ground state is critical with exponents that are consistent with conformal field theory. The other 1-dimensional system that has been studied is the ladder for which field-theory gives some predictions. For instance, the ground state of the SU(4) case in the fundamental irreducible representation is believed to consist of a 4-site plaquette state for any non-zero inter-leg coupling. We have confirmed the presence of this state, even if in the weak coupling regime, the optimal variational state is gapless. The study has been extended to various

N

and

m

values providing interesting results. The last part will present the results for 2-dimensional lattices. The square lattice will first be investigated. A mean-field analysis predicts a plaquette ground state for

3\leq N/m < 5

and of a chiral ground state for

N/m\geq 5

. By systematically studying the SU(3m) and SU(6m) Heisenberg model, we determined that the mean-field solution is valid even at small

m

(

m>1

for SU(3m) and

m>2

for SU(6m)). Then, for the SU(6m) Heisenberg model with

m

particles per site on a honeycomb lattice, we make the connection between the

m=1

case, for which the ground state has recently been shown to be in a plaquette singlet state, and the

m\rightarrow \infty

limit, where a mean-field approach has established that the ground state has chiral order. We were able to show that this system has a clear tendency toward the chiral order as soon as

m\geq 2

. This demonstrates that the chiral phase can be stabilised for not too large values of

m

, opening the way to its experimental realisations in other lattices. We will finally present results for the SU(3m) on the triangular lattice for which we find a plaquette state, when

m>1

EPFL2016

Time-reversal symmetry breaking Abelian chiral spin liquid in Mott phases of three-component fermions on the triangular lattice

Carolin Boos, Miklos Lajko, Frédéric Mila, Pierre Marcel Nataf, Karlo Penc

We provide numerical evidence in favor of spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking and the concomitant appearance of an Abelian chiral spin liquid for three-component fermions on the triangular lattice described by an SU(3) symmetric Hubbard model with hopping amplitude -t (t > 0) and on-site interaction U. This chiral phase is stabilized in the Mott phase with one particle per site in the presence of a uniform pi flux per plaquette, and in the Mott phase with two particles per site without any flux. Our approach relies on effective spin models derived in the strong-coupling limit in powers of t/U for general SU(N) and arbitrary uniform charge flux per plaquette, which are subsequently studied using exact diagonalizations and variational Monte Carlo simulations for N = 3, as well as exact diagonalizations of the SU(3) Hubbard model on small clusters. Up to third order in t/U, and for the time-reversal symmetric cases (flux 0 or pi), the low-energy description is given by the J-K model with Heisenberg coupling J and real ring exchange K. The phase diagram in the full J-K parameter range contains, apart from three already known, magnetically long-range ordered phases, two previously unreported phases: (i) a lattice nematic phase breaking the lattice rotation symmetry and (ii) a spontaneous time-reversal and parity symmetry breaking Abelian chiral spin liquid. For the Hubbard model, an investigation that includes higher-order itinerancy effects supports the presence of a phase transition inside the insulating region, occurring at (t/U)(c) approximate to 0.07 [(U/t)(c) approximate to 13] between the three-sublattice magnetically ordered phase at small t/U and this Abelian chiral spin liquid.

AMER PHYSICAL SOC2020