Majorana spin liquids and projective realization of SU(2) spin symmetry

Abstract

We revisit the fermionic parton approach to $S=1/2$ quantum spin liquids with $\mathrm{SU}(2)$ spin-rotation symmetry, and the associated projective symmetry group (PSG) classification. We point out that the existing PSG classification is incomplete; upon completing it, we find spin-liquid states with $S=1$ and $S=0$ Majorana fermion excitations coupled to a deconfined ${Z}_{2}$ gauge field. The crucial observation leading us to this result is that, like space group and time-reversal symmetries, spin rotations can act projectively on the fermionic partons; that is, a spin rotation may be realized by simultaneous $\mathrm{SU}(2)$ spin and gauge rotations. We show that there are only two realizations of spin rotations acting on fermionic partons: the familiar naive realization where spin rotation is not accompanied by any gauge transformation, and a single type of projective realization. We discuss the PSG classification for states with projective spin rotations. To illustrate these results, we show that there are four such PSGs on the two-dimensional square lattice. We study the properties of the corresponding states, finding that one---with gapless Fermi points---is a stable phase beyond mean-field theory. In this phase, depending on parameters, a small Zeeman magnetic field can open a partial gap for the Majorana fermion excitations. Moreover, there are nearby gapped phases supporting ${Z}_{2}$ vortex excitations obeying non-Abelian statistics. We conclude with a discussion of various open issues, including the challenging question of where such $S=1$ Majorana spin liquids may occur in models and in real systems.