Abstract
Recent discovery of the half quantized thermal Hall conductivity in alpha-RuCl{}_{3}, a candidate material for the Kitaev spin liquid, suggests the presence of a highly entangled quantum state in external magnetic fields. This field induced phase appears between the low field zig-zag magnetic order and the high field polarized state. Motivated by this experiment, we study possible field induced quantum phases in theoretical models of the Kitaev magnets, using the two dimensional tensor network approach or infinite tensor product states. We find various quantum ground states in addition to the chiral Kitaev spin liquid occupying a small area in the phase diagram. They form a band of emergent quantum phases in an intermediate window of external magnetic fields, somewhat reminiscent of the experiment. We discuss the implications of these results in view of the experiment and previous theoretical studies.
Highlights
Recent discovery of the half quantized thermal Hall conductivity in α-RuCl3, a candidate material for the Kitaev spin liquid, suggests the presence of a highly entangled quantum state in external magnetic fields
Ðγ; μ; νÞ forms a cyclic permutation of ðx; y; zÞ such that offdiagonal spin exchanges are represented by Γ and Γ0 interactions
Apart from the wellestablished chiral KSL, we discover the stabilization of the nematic paramagnets NP1 and NP2 at intermediate magnetic fields
Summary
Recent discovery of the half quantized thermal Hall conductivity in α-RuCl3, a candidate material for the Kitaev spin liquid, suggests the presence of a highly entangled quantum state in external magnetic fields. This field induced phase appears between the low field zig-zag magnetic order and the high field polarized state. Such spectra form a continuum and have no sharp excitations, which pose an inherent difficulty in identifying quantum spin liquids In this context, the recent observation of half-quantized thermal Hall conductivity in dsthpiseincomvlaieqtreuyri3id.alα(α-KR-SRuLCu)C2l3,4l3–is2i4na, an external magnetic field is a remarkable promising candidate for the gapless Kitaev which is the ground state of an exactly solvable spin model[25]. In order to resolve this issue, theoretical studies of the quantum model in the thermodynamic limit are necessary
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