Z2 spin liquids in spin-S Kitaev honeycomb model via parton construction

          @misc{ pirsa_PIRSA:22110066,
            doi = {10.48660/22110066},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/22110066},
            author = {Ma, Han},
            keywords = {Condensed Matter},
            language = {en},
            title = {Z2 spin liquids in spin-S Kitaev honeycomb model via parton construction},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute},
            year = {2022},
            month = {nov},
            note = {PIRSA:22110066 see, \url{https://pirsa.org}}
          }
          

Abstract

Unlike the half spin Kitaev honeycomb model which can be solved by an exact parton construction, the higher spin analogue of it is not solvable and it is still controversial if it exhibits a quantum spin liquid phase. In this talk, I will present a generalized parton construction where each spin-S is represented by 8S Majorana fermions. This framework naturally leads to a Z2 spin liquid when S is a half integer and gives a trivial ground state when S is an integer. Particularly, in the Z2 spin liquid, the Z2 charge is carried by a product of 2S Majorana fermions. In the anisotropic limit, say the interaction on the z bond is much stronger than others, the charges are gapped and the higher spin Kitaev model is reduced to a Wen-plaquette model exhibiting Z2 topological order. However, it is expected that at certain interaction strength on the x,y,z bond, the charges become gapless which results in a gapless Z2 spin liquid.