Kitaev Model Research Articles

Finite-temperature phase transition to a Kitaev spin liquid phase on a hyperoctagon lattice: A large-scale quantum Monte Carlo study

The quantum spin liquid is an enigmatic quantum state in insulating magnets, in which conventional long-range order is suppressed by strong quantum fluctuations. Recently, an unconventional phase transition was reported between the low-temperature quantum spin liquid and the high-temperature paramagnet in the Kitaev model on a three-dimensional hyperhoneycomb lattice. Here, we show that a similar ``liquid-gas'' transition takes place in another three-dimensional lattice, the hyperoctagon lattice. We investigate the critical phenomena by adopting the Green-function based Monte Carlo technique with the kernel polynomial method, which enables systematic analysis of up to 2048 sites. The critical temperature is lower than that in the hyperhoneycomb case, reflecting the smaller flux gap. We also discuss the transition on the basis of an effective model in the anisotropic limit.

Disorder in the Sachdev–Ye–Kitaev model

We give qualitative arguments in support of the mesoscopic nature of the Sachdev–Ye–Kitaev (SYK) model in the regime with q2/N≪1 with N Majorana particles coupled by antisymmetric and random interactions of range q. Using a stochastic deformation of the SYK model, we show that its characteristic determinant obeys a viscid Burgers equation with a small spectral viscosity in the regime with q/N=1/2. In particular, the stochastic evolution of the SYK model can be mapped exactly onto that of random matrix theory, with universal Airy oscillations at the edges.

Magnetic impurity doping induced spin-glass state and short-range zigzag order in the honeycomb iridate Na2IrO3

Based on the modified Heisenberg–Kitaev model, the effects of magnetic substitution on the magnetic properties of the honeycomb-lattice iridate are studied using Monte Carlo simulations. It is observed that the long-range zigzag state of the original system is rather fragile and can be replaced by a spin-glass state even for small substitution, well consistent with the experimental observation in Ru-substituted samples (Mehlawat et al 2015 Phys. Rev. B 92 134412). Both the disordered Heisenberg and Kitaev interactions caused by the magnetic ion-doping are suggested to be responsible for the magnetic phase transitions in the system. More interestingly, a short-range zigzag order is suggested to survive above the freezing temperature even at high magnetic impurity doping levels.

Local indistinguishability and edge modes revealed by the sub-system fidelity

We propose to use the sub-system fidelity, defined by comparing a pair of reduced density matrices, to identify and locate zero modes relating two degenerate ground states in one-dimensional interacting many-body systems, where the degeneracy arises from either symmetry protected topology (SPT), or from discrete symmetry breaking (DSB). A theorem is provided to construct locally indistinguishable (LI) states by linear recombination of the degenerate states of minimal bulk entanglement entropy. The theorem enables us to construct local operators that swap exactly the LI states and are therefore the zero energy modes in the many-body system. Interestingly, they can be located anywhere in the DSB case, but can only be accommodated near the edges in the SPT case. This can be used to identify or distinguish SPT states against the so-called cat states in the DSB case. We illustrate the results for the anisotropic Haldane chain and the interacting Kitaev model.

Probing Spinon Nodal Structures in Three-Dimensional Kitaev Spin Liquids.

We propose that resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) is an effective probe of the fractionalized excitations in three-dimensional (3D) Kitaev spin liquids. While the non-spin-conserving RIXS responses are dominated by the gauge-flux excitations and reproduce the inelastic-neutron-scattering response, the spin-conserving (SC) RIXS response picks up the Majorana-fermion excitations and detects whether they are gapless at Weyl points, nodal lines, or Fermi surfaces. As a signature of symmetry fractionalization, the SC RIXS response is suppressed around the Γ point. On a technical level, we calculate the exact SC RIXS responses of the Kitaev models on the hyperhoneycomb, stripyhoneycomb, hyperhexagon, and hyperoctagon lattices, arguing that our main results also apply to generic 3D Kitaev spin liquids beyond these exactly solvable models.

Temperature evolution of spin dynamics in two- and three-dimensional Kitaev models: Influence of fluctuating Z2 flux

The long-sought quantum spin liquid is a quantum-entangled magnetic state leading to the fractionalization of spin degrees of freedom. Quasiparticles emergent from the fractionalization affect not only the ground state properties but also thermodynamic behavior in a peculiar manner. We here investigate how the spin dynamics evolves from the high-temperature paramagnet to the quantum spin liquid ground state, for the Kitaev spin model describing the fractionalization into itinerant matter fermions and localized $Z_2$ gauge fluxes. Beyond the previous study [J. Yoshitake, J. Nasu, and Y. Motome, Phys. Rev. Lett. $\textbf{117}$, 157203 (2016)], in which the mean-field nature of the cluster dynamical mean-field theory prevented us from studying low-temperature properties, we develop a numerical technique by applying the continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo (CTQMC) method to statistical samples generated by the quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) method in a Majorana fermion representation. This QMC+CTQMC method is fully unbiased and enables us to investigate the low-temperature spin dynamics dominated by thermally excited gauge fluxes, including the unconventional phase transition caused by gauge flux loops in three dimensions, which was unreachable by the previous methods. We apply this technique to the Kitaev model in both two and three dimensions. Our results clearly distinguish two cases: while the dynamics changes smoothly through the crossover in the two-dimensional honeycomb case, it exhibits singular behaviors at the phase transition in the three-dimensional hyperhoneycomb case. We show that the low-temperature spin dynamics is a sensitive probe for thermally fluctuating gauge fluxes that behave very differently between two and three dimensions.

Global constraints on [formula omitted] fluxes in two different anisotropic limits of a hypernonagon Kitaev model

The Kitaev model is an exactly-soluble quantum spin model, whose ground state provides a canonical example of a quantum spin liquid. Spin excitations from the ground state are fractionalized into emergent matter fermions and Z2 fluxes. The Z2 flux excitation is pointlike in two dimensions, while it comprises a closed loop in three dimensions because of the local constraint for each closed volume. In addition, the fluxes obey global constraints involving (semi)macroscopic number of fluxes. We here investigate such global constraints in the Kitaev model on a three-dimensional lattice composed of nine-site elementary loops, dubbed the hypernonagon lattice, whose ground state is a chiral spin liquid. We consider two different anisotropic limits of the hypernonagon Kitaev model where the low-energy effective models are described solely by the Z2 fluxes. We show that there are two kinds of global constraints in the model defined on a three-dimensional torus, namely, surface and volume constraints: the surface constraint is imposed on the even-odd parity of the total number of fluxes threading a two-dimensional slice of the system, while the volume constraint is for the even-odd parity of the number of the fluxes through specific plaquettes whose total number is proportional to the system volume. In the two anisotropic limits, therefore, the elementary excitation of Z2 fluxes occurs in a pair of closed loops so as to satisfy both two global constraints as well as the local constraints.

Creating and probing the Sachdev–Ye–Kitaev model with ultracold gases: Towards experimental studies of quantum gravity

We suggest that the holographic principle, combined with recent technological advances in atomic, molecular, and optical physics, can lead to experimental studies of quantum gravity. As a specific example, we consider the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model, which consists of spin-polarized fermions with an all-to-all complex random two-body hopping and has been conjectured to be dual to a certain quantum gravitational system. Achieving low-temperature states of the SYK model is interpreted as a realization of a stringy black hole, provided that the holographic duality is true. We introduce a variant of the SYK model, in which the random two-body hopping is real. This model is equivalent to the origincal SYK model in the large-$N$ limit. We show that this model can be created in principle by confining ultracold fermionic atoms into optical lattices and coupling two atoms with molecular states via photo-association lasers. This development serves as an important first step towards an experimental realization of such systems dual to quantum black holes. We also show how to measure out-of-time-order correlation functions of the SYK model, which allow for identifying the maximally chaotic property of the black hole.

Majorana dynamical mean-field study of spin dynamics at finite temperatures in the honeycomb Kitaev model

A prominent feature of quantum spin liquids is fractionalization of the spin degree of freedom. Fractionalized excitations have their own dynamics in different energy scales, and hence, affect finite-temperature ($T$) properties in a peculiar manner even in the paramagnetic state harboring the quantum spin liquid state. We here present a comprehensive theoretical study of the spin dynamics in a wide $T$ range for the Kitaev model on a honeycomb lattice, whose ground state is such a quantum spin liquid. In this model, the fractionalization occurs to break up quantum spins into itinerant matter fermions and localized gauge fluxes, which results in two crossovers at very different $T$ scales. Extending the previous study for the isotropic coupling case [J. Yoshitake, J. Nasu, and Y. Motome, Phys. Rev. Lett. ${\textbf 117}$, 157203 (2016)], we calculate the dynamical spin structure factor, the NMR relaxation rate, and the magnetic susceptibility while changing the anisotropy in the exchange coupling constants, by using the dynamical mean-field theory and the continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo method based on a Majorana fermion representation. We find that the system exhibits peculiar behaviors below the high-$T$ crossover whose temperature is comparable to the average of the exchange constants, reflecting the spin fractionalization in the paramagnetic region. Among them, the dichotomy between the static and dynamical spin correlations is unusual behavior hardly seen in conventional magnets. We discuss the relation between the dichotomy and the spatial configuration of gauge fluxes. Our results could stimulate further experimental and theoretical analyses of candidate materials for the Kitaev quantum spin liquids.

Evidence for a Field-Induced Quantum Spin Liquid in α-RuCl_{3}.

We report a ^{35}Cl nuclear magnetic resonance study in the honeycomb lattice α-RuCl_{3}, a material that has been suggested to potentially realize a Kitaev quantum spin liquid (QSL) ground state. Our results provide direct evidence that α-RuCl_{3} exhibits a magnetic-field-induced QSL. For fields larger than ∼10 T, a spin gap opens up while resonance lines remain sharp, evidencing that spins are quantum disordered and locally fluctuating. The spin gap increases linearly with an increasing magnetic field, reaching ∼50 K at 15T, and is nearly isotropic with respect to the field direction. The unusual rapid increase of the spin gap with increasing field and its isotropic nature are incompatible with conventional magnetic ordering and, in particular, exclude that the ground state is a fully polarized ferromagnet. The presence of such a field-induced gapped QSL phase has indeed been predicted in the Kitaev model.

Semiclassical approach to dynamics of interacting fermions

Understanding the behaviour of interacting fermions is of fundamental interest in many fields ranging from condensed matter to high energy physics. Developing numerically efficient and accurate simulation methods is an indispensable part of this. Already in equilibrium, fermions are notoriously hard to handle due to the sign problem. Out of equilibrium, an important outstanding problem is the efficient numerical simulation of the dynamics of these systems. In this work we develop a new semiclassical phase-space approach (a.k.a. the truncated Wigner approximation) for simulating the dynamics of interacting fermions in arbitrary dimensions. As fermions are essentially non-classical objects, a phase-space is constructed out of all fermionic bilinears. Classical phase-space is thus comprised of highly non-local (hidden) variables representing these bilinears, and the cost of the method is that it scales quadratic rather than linear with system size. We demonstrate the strength of the method by comparing the results to the exact quantum dynamics of fermion expansion in the Hubbard model and quantum thermalization in the Sachdev–Ye–Kitaev (SYK) model for small systems, where the semiclassics nearly perfectly reproduces correct results. We furthermore analyse fermion expansion in a larger, intractable by exact methods, 2D Hubbard model, which is directly relevant to recent cold atom experiments.

Topological phase transition in the field induced Kitaev model on the Kagome lattice

We investigate the low-energy spectral properties of the Kitaev model on the Kagome lattice, which is a quantum spin model for the aim of fault-tolerant quantum computation, in the presence of a uniform magnetic field in the x- and z-directions. We explore the low-energy physics of the Kitaev model in the x- and z-magnetic fields, separately and establish a quasi-particle picture for anyonic excitations. Our study is based on the high-order series expansion of the low- and high field limits of the problem by means of perturbative continuous unitary transformations. We further show that the Kitaev model in the x-field is mapped to the Ising transverse field (ITF) model on the triangular lattice while, the system is mapped to another ITF model on the honeycomb lattice in the presence of the z-magnetic field. Additionally, we investigate the phase transitions of the model for the two cases and find that the topological phase of the Kitaev model breaks down to the polarized phase in either x- or z-directions by a second-order quantum phase transition in the 3D Ising universality class. We further detect dispersive bound states in high-field limits of the model for both cases of the magnetic field. The overall results further indicate that the Kitaev model on the Kagome lattice has the different stability as the toric code on the square lattice, while perturbed by magnetic fields.

Power-law out of time order correlation functions in the SYK model

We evaluate the finite temperature partition sum and correlation functions of the Sachdev–Ye–Kitaev (SYK) model. Starting from a recently proposed mapping of the SYK model onto Liouville quantum mechanics, we obtain our results by exact integration over conformal Goldstone modes reparameterizing physical time. Perhaps, the least expected result of our analysis is that at time scales proportional to the number of particles the out of time order correlation function crosses over from a regime of exponential decay to a universal t−6 power-law behavior.

Physics of the Kitaev Model: Fractionalization, Dynamic Correlations, and Material Connections

Quantum spin liquids have fascinated condensed matter physicists for decades because of their unusual properties such as spin fractionalization and long-range entanglement. Unlike conventional symmetry breaking, the topological order underlying quantum spin liquids is hard to detect experimentally. Even theoretical models are scarce for which the ground state is established to be a quantum spin liquid. The Kitaev honeycomb model and its generalizations to other tricoordinated lattices are chief counterexamples—they are exactly solvable, harbor a variety of quantum spin liquid phases, and are also relevant for certain transition metal compounds including the polymorphs of (Na,Li)2IrO3 iridates and RuCl3. In this review, we give an overview of the rich physics of the Kitaev model, including two-dimensional and three-dimensional fractionalization as well as dynamic correlations and behavior at finite temperatures. We discuss the different materials and argue how the Kitaev model physics can be relevant even though most materials show magnetic ordering at low temperatures.

Anomalous Thermal Conductivity and Magnetic Torque Response in the Honeycomb Magnet α-RuCl_{3}.

We report on the unusual behavior of the in-plane thermal conductivity κ and torque τ response in the Kitaev-Heisenberg material α-RuCl_{3}. κ shows a striking enhancement with linear growth beyond H=7 T, where magnetic order disappears, while τ for both of the in-plane symmetry directions shows an anomaly at the same field. The temperature and field dependence of κ are far more complex than conventional phonon and magnon contributions, and require us to invoke the presence of unconventional spin excitations whose properties are characteristic of a field-induced spin-liquid phase related to the enigmatic physics of the Kitaev model in an applied magnetic field.

Quantum lattice model solver [formula omitted

HΦ [aitch-phi ] is a program package based on the Lanczos-type eigenvalue solution applicable to a broad range of quantum lattice models, i.e., arbitrary quantum lattice models with two-body interactions, including the Heisenberg model, the Kitaev model, the Hubbard model and the Kondo-lattice model. While it works well on PCs and PC-clusters, HΦ also runs efficiently on massively parallel computers, which considerably extends the tractable range of the system size. In addition, unlike most existing packages, HΦ supports finite-temperature calculations through the method of thermal pure quantum (TPQ) states. In this paper, we explain theoretical background and user-interface of HΦ. We also show the benchmark results of HΦ on supercomputers such as the K computer at RIKEN Advanced Institute for Computational Science (AICS) and SGI ICE XA (Sekirei) at the Institute for the Solid State Physics (ISSP). Program summaryProgram Title:HΦProgram Files doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.17632/vnfthtyctm.1Licensing provisions: GNU General Public License, version 3 or laterProgramming language: CExternal routines/libraries: MPI, BLAS, LAPACKNature of problem: Physical properties (such as the magnetic moment, the specific heat, the spin susceptibility) of strongly correlated electrons at zero- and finite-temperature.Solution method: Application software based on the full diagonalization method, the exact diagonalization using the Lanczos method, and the microcanonical thermal pure quantum state for quantum lattice model such as the Hubbard model, the Heisenberg model and the Kondo model.Restrictions: System size less than about 20 sites for an itinerant electronic system and 40 site for a local spin system.Unusual features: Finite-temperature calculation of the strongly correlated electronic system based on the iterative scheme to construct the thermal pure quantum state. This method is efficient for highly frustrated system which is difficult to treat with other methods such as the unbiased quantum Monte Carlo.

Spin-Liquid-to-Spin-Liquid Transition in Kitaev Magnets Driven by Fractionalization.

While phase transitions between magnetic analogs of the three states of matter-a long-range ordered state, paramagnet, and spin liquid-are extensively studied, the possibility of "liquid-liquid" transitions, namely, between different spin liquids, remains elusive. By introducing the additional Ising coupling into the honeycomb Kitaev model with bond asymmetry, we discover that the Kitaev spin liquid turns into a spin-nematic quantum paramagnet before a magnetic order is established by the Ising coupling. The quantum phase transition between the two liquid states accompanies a topological change driven by fractionalized excitations, the Z_{2} gauge fluxes, and is of first order. At finite temperatures, this yields a persisting first-order transition line that terminates at a critical point located deep inside the regime where quantum spins are fractionalized. It is suggested that similar transitions may occur in other perturbed Kitaev magnets with bond asymmetry.

Kitaev Lattice Models as a Hopf Algebra Gauge Theory

We prove that Kitaev's lattice model for a finite-dimensional semisimple Hopf algebra H is equivalent to the combinatorial quantisation of Chern-Simons theory for the Drinfeld double D(H). This shows that Kitaev models are a special case of the older and more general combinatorial models. This equivalence is an analogue of the relation between Turaev-Viro and Reshetikhin-Turaev TQFTs and relates them to the quantisation of moduli spaces of flat connections. We show that the topological invariants of the two models, the algebra of operators acting on the protected space of the Kitaev model and the quantum moduli algebra from the combinatorial quantisation formalism, are isomorphic. This is established in a gauge theoretical picture, in which both models appear as Hopf algebra valued lattice gauge theories. We first prove that the triangle operators of a Kitaev model form a module algebra over a Hopf algebra of gauge transformations and that this module algebra is isomorphic to the lattice algebra in the combinatorial formalism. Both algebras can be viewed as the algebra of functions on gauge fields in a Hopf algebra gauge theory. The isomorphism between them induces an algebra isomorphism between their subalgebras of invariants, which are interpreted as gauge invariant functions or observables. It also relates the curvatures in the two models, which are given as holonomies around the faces of the lattice. This yields an isomorphism between the subalgebras obtained by projecting out curvatures, which can be viewed as the algebras of functions on flat gauge fields and are the topological invariants of the two models.

Singular dynamics and emergence of nonlocality in long-range quantum models

We discuss how nonlocality originates in long-range quantum systems and how it affects their dynamics at and out of equilibrium. We focus in particular on the Kitaev chains with long-range pairings and on the quantum Ising chain with long-range antiferromagnetic coupling (both having a power-law decay with exponent α). By studying the dynamic correlation functions, we find that for every finite α two different behaviours can be identified, one typical of short-range systems and the other connected with locality violation. The latter behaviour is shown related also with the known power-law decay tails previously observed in the static correlation functions, and originated by modes—having in general energies far from the minima of the spectrum—where particular singularities develop as a consequence of the long-rangedness of the system. We refer to these modes as to ‘singular’ modes, and as to ‘singular dynamics’ to their dynamics. For the Kitaev model they are manifest, at finite α, in derivatives of the quasiparticle energy, the order of the derivatives at which the singularity occurs is increasing with α. The features of the singular modes and their physical consequences are clarified by studying an effective theory for them and by a critical comparison of the results from this theory with the lattice ones. Moreover, a numerical study of the effects of the singular modes on the time evolution after various types of global quenches is performed. We finally present and discuss the presence of singular modes and their consequences in interacting long-range systems by investigating in the long-range Ising quantum chain, both in the deep paramagnetic regime and at criticality, where they also play a central role for the breakdown of conformal invariance.

Two-rate periodic protocol with dynamics driven through many cycles

We study the long time dynamics in closed quantum systems periodically driven via time dependent parameters with two frequencies $\omega_1$ and $\omega_2=r \omega_1$. Tuning of the ratio $r$ there can unleash plenty of dynamical phenomena to occur. Our study includes integrable models like Ising and XY models in $d=1$ and Kitaev model in $d=1$ and $2$ and can also be extended to Dirac fermions in graphene. We witness the wave-function overlap or dynamic freezing to occur within some small/ intermediate frequency regimes in the $(\omega_1 ,r)$ plane (with $r\ne0$) when the ground state is evolved through single cycle of driving. However, evolved states soon become steady with long driving and the freezing scenario gets rarer. We extend the formalism of adiabatic-impulse approximation for many cycle driving within our two-rate protocol and show the near-exact comparisons at small frequencies. An extension of the rotating wave approximation is also developed to gather an analytical framework of the dynamics at high frequencies. Finally we compute the entanglement entropy in the stroboscopically evolved states within the gapped phases of the system and observe how it gets tuned with the ratio $r$ in our protocol. The minimally entangled states are found to fall within the regime of dynamical freezing. In general, the results indicate that the entanglement entropy in our driven short-ranged integrable systems follow genuine non-area law of scaling and show a convergence (with a $r$ dependent pace) towards volume scaling behavior as the driving is continued for long time.