Possible chiral spin liquid state in the S = 1/2 kagome Heisenberg model

Abstract

The nature of the ground state for the S = 1/2 Kagome Heisenberg antiferromagnet (KHAF) has been elusive. We revisit this challenging problem and provide numerical evidence that its ground state is a chiral spin liquid. Combining the density matrix renormalization group method with analytical analyses, we demonstrate that the previously observed chiral spin liquid phase in the KHAF with longer-range couplings is stable in a broader region of the phase diagram. We characterize the nature of the ground state by computing energy derivatives, revealing the ground-state degeneracy arising from the spontaneous breaking of the time-reversal symmetry, and targeting the semion sector. We further investigate the phase diagram in the vicinity of the KHAF and observe a 3×3\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\sqrt{3}\ imes \\sqrt{3}$$\\end{document} magnetically ordered phase and two valence-bond crystal phases.