Phase diagram of the hexagonal lattice quantum dimer model

Abstract

We discuss the phase diagram of the quantum dimer model on the hexagonal (honeycomb) lattice. In addition to the columnar and staggered valence-bond solids which have been discussed in previous work, we establish the existence of a plaquette valence-bond solid. The transition between the plaquette and columnar phases at $v/t=\ensuremath{-}0.2\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.05$ is argued to be first order. We note that this model should describe valence-bond-dominated phases of frustrated Heisenberg models on the hexagonal lattice and discuss its relation to recent exact diagonalization work by Fouet et al. on the ${J}_{1}\ensuremath{-}{J}_{2}$ model on the same lattice. Our results also shed light on the properties of the transverse field Ising antiferromagnet on the triangular lattice and the classical Ising antiferromagnet on the stacked triangular lattice, which are related to dimer models by duality.