Search Menu
DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
Search Scholarly Publications

Title: Comprehensive study of the dynamics of a classical Kitaev spin liquid

Abstract

In this work, we study the spin-S Kitaev model in the classical (S→∞) limit using Monte Carlo simulations combined with semiclassical spin dynamics. We discuss differences and similarities in the dynamical structure factors of the spin-1/2 and the classical Kitaev liquids. The quantum behavior is restricted to low temperatures where a gap protects visons from decohering the system. Once this quantum gap is breached, at low temperatures compared to the coupling constant, significant entropic disorder decoheres the Majorana fermions and the system is described quantitatively by classical dynamics. The low-temperature and low-energy spectrum of the classical model exhibits a finite-energy peak, which is the precursor of the one produced by the Majorana modes of the S=1/2 model. The classical peak is spectrally narrowed compared to the quantum result and can be explained by magnon excitations within fluctuating one-dimensional manifolds (loops). Hence the difference from the classical limit to the quantum limit can be understood by the fractionalization of magnons propagating in one-dimensional manifolds. Moreover, we show that the momentum-space distribution of the low-energy spectral weight of the S=1/2 model follows the momentum-space distribution of zero modes of the classical model.

Authors:
 [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3];  [4];  [5]; ORCiD logo [6];  [7];  [8]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Shull-Wollan Center; Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA (United States)
  2. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Shull-Wollan Center
  3. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
  4. Inst. of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN), Wako (Japan). Condensed Matter Theory Lab.
  5. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Shull-Wollan Center; Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States). Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education
  6. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  7. Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA (United States)
  8. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Shull-Wollan Center; Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1862163
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1398297
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC05-00OR22725
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physical Review. B
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 96; Journal Issue: 13; Journal ID: ISSN 2469-9950
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; quantum spin liquid; spin liquid; Kitaev model; Kitaev-Heisenberg model; Monte Carlo methods

Citation Formats

Samarakoon, A. M., Banerjee, A., Zhang, S. -S., Kamiya, Y., Nagler, S. E., Tennant, D. A., Lee, S. -H., and Batista, C. D. Comprehensive study of the dynamics of a classical Kitaev spin liquid. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1103/physrevb.96.134408.
Copy to clipboard
Samarakoon, A. M., Banerjee, A., Zhang, S. -S., Kamiya, Y., Nagler, S. E., Tennant, D. A., Lee, S. -H., & Batista, C. D. Comprehensive study of the dynamics of a classical Kitaev spin liquid. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.96.134408
Copy to clipboard
Samarakoon, A. M., Banerjee, A., Zhang, S. -S., Kamiya, Y., Nagler, S. E., Tennant, D. A., Lee, S. -H., and Batista, C. D. Fri . "Comprehensive study of the dynamics of a classical Kitaev spin liquid". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.96.134408. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1862163.
Copy to clipboard
@article{osti_1862163,
title = {Comprehensive study of the dynamics of a classical Kitaev spin liquid},
author = {Samarakoon, A. M. and Banerjee, A. and Zhang, S. -S. and Kamiya, Y. and Nagler, S. E. and Tennant, D. A. and Lee, S. -H. and Batista, C. D.},
abstractNote = {In this work, we study the spin-S Kitaev model in the classical (S→∞) limit using Monte Carlo simulations combined with semiclassical spin dynamics. We discuss differences and similarities in the dynamical structure factors of the spin-1/2 and the classical Kitaev liquids. The quantum behavior is restricted to low temperatures where a gap protects visons from decohering the system. Once this quantum gap is breached, at low temperatures compared to the coupling constant, significant entropic disorder decoheres the Majorana fermions and the system is described quantitatively by classical dynamics. The low-temperature and low-energy spectrum of the classical model exhibits a finite-energy peak, which is the precursor of the one produced by the Majorana modes of the S=1/2 model. The classical peak is spectrally narrowed compared to the quantum result and can be explained by magnon excitations within fluctuating one-dimensional manifolds (loops). Hence the difference from the classical limit to the quantum limit can be understood by the fractionalization of magnons propagating in one-dimensional manifolds. Moreover, we show that the momentum-space distribution of the low-energy spectral weight of the S=1/2 model follows the momentum-space distribution of zero modes of the classical model.},
doi = {10.1103/physrevb.96.134408},
journal = {Physical Review. B},
number = 13,
volume = 96,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 EDT 2017},
month = {Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 EDT 2017}
}
Copy to clipboard
Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.96.134408
Copyright Statement
Other availability
Search WorldCat Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 32 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science
Save / Share:
Export Metadata
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.

Works referenced in this record:

The kernel polynomial method
journal, March 2006

  • Weiße, Alexander; Wellein, Gerhard; Alvermann, Andreas
  • Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 78, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1103/RevModPhys.78.275

Dynamics of a Two-Dimensional Quantum Spin Liquid: Signatures of Emergent Majorana Fermions and Fluxes
journal, May 2014

Anomalous dynamical line shapes in a quantum magnet at finite temperature
journal, January 2012

Challenges in design of Kitaev materials: Magnetic interactions from competing energy scales
journal, June 2016

Challenges in Design of Kitaev Materials: Magnetic Interactions from Competing Energy Scales
text, January 2016

Order-by-disorder and spin-orbital liquids in a distorted Heisenberg-Kitaev model
journal, July 2014

Spin- S Kitaev model: Classical ground states, order from disorder, and exact correlation functions
journal, September 2008

Low-Energy Spin Dynamics of the Honeycomb Spin Liquid Beyond the Kitaev Limit
journal, July 2016

Phase diagram and spin correlations of the Kitaev-Heisenberg model: Importance of quantum effects
journal, January 2017

Stiffness from Disorder in Triangular-Lattice Ising Thin Films
journal, April 2014

Vaporization of Kitaev Spin Liquids
journal, November 2014

From a Quasimolecular Band Insulator to a Relativistic Mott Insulator in t 2 g 5 Systems with a Honeycomb Lattice Structure
journal, October 2016

Exact Results for Spin Dynamics and Fractionalization in the Kitaev Model
journal, June 2007

Spin-Liquid–to–Spin-Liquid Transition in Kitaev Magnets Driven by Fractionalization
journal, March 2017

Kitaev exchange and field-induced quantum spin-liquid states in honeycomb α-RuCl3
journal, November 2016

  • Yadav, Ravi; Bogdanov, Nikolay A.; Katukuri, Vamshi M.
  • Scientific Reports, Vol. 6, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1038/srep37925

Kitaev-Heisenberg Model on a Honeycomb Lattice: Possible Exotic Phases in Iridium Oxides A 2 IrO 3
journal, July 2010

Crystal structure and magnetism in α − RuCl 3 : An ab initio study
journal, April 2016

Finite-temperature phase diagram of the classical Kitaev-Heisenberg model
journal, July 2013

Majorana dynamical mean-field study of spin dynamics at finite temperatures in the honeycomb Kitaev model
journal, July 2017

Theoretical investigation of magnetic dynamics in α − RuCl 3
journal, September 2017

Classical Spin Liquid Instability Driven By Off-Diagonal Exchange in Strong Spin-Orbit Magnets
journal, April 2017

Neutron scattering in the proximate quantum spin liquid α-RuCl3.
text, January 2017

  • Banerjee, Arnab; Yan, Jiaqiang; Knolle, Johannes
  • Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository
  • DOI: 10.17863/cam.11028

Zigzag Magnetic Order in the Iridium Oxide Na 2 IrO 3
journal, February 2013

Proximate Kitaev quantum spin liquid behaviour in a honeycomb magnet
journal, April 2016

  • Banerjee, A.; Bridges, C. A.; Yan, J. -Q.
  • Nature Materials, Vol. 15, Issue 7
  • DOI: 10.1038/nmat4604

Anyons in an exactly solved model and beyond
journal, January 2006

Exact results for spin dynamics and fractionization in the Kitaev Model
text, January 2006

Low-energy Spin Dynamics of the Honeycomb Spin Liquid Beyond the Kitaev Limit
text, January 2016

Orbital Order and Fluctuations in Mott Insulators
journal, January 2005

  • Khaliullin, Giniyat
  • Progress of Theoretical Physics Supplement, Vol. 160
  • DOI: 10.1143/PTPS.160.155

Neutron scattering in the proximate quantum spin liquid α-RuCl 3
journal, June 2017

Operator spectrum and exact exponents of the fully packed loop model
journal, October 1996

  • Kondev, Jané; Gier, Jan de; Nienhuis, Bernard
  • Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General, Vol. 29, Issue 20
  • DOI: 10.1088/0305-4470/29/20/007

Spin Waves and Revised Crystal Structure of Honeycomb Iridate Na 2 IrO 3
journal, March 2012

Majorana fermions in the Kitaev quantum spin system α-RuCl3
journal, September 2017

  • Do, Seung-Hwan; Park, Sang-Youn; Yoshitake, Junki
  • Nature Physics, Vol. 13, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.1038/nphys4264

Kitaev magnetism in honeycomb RuCl 3 with intermediate spin-orbit coupling
journal, June 2015

Magnetic anisotropy in the Kitaev model systems Na 2 IrO 3 and RuCl 3
journal, August 2016

Critical Properties of the Kitaev-Heisenberg Model
journal, November 2012

Temperature evolution of spin dynamics in two- and three-dimensional Kitaev models: Influence of fluctuating Z 2 flux
journal, August 2017

A study of the quantum classical crossover in the spin dynamics of the 2D S = 5/2 antiferromagnet Rb 2 MnF 4 : neutron scattering, computer simulations and analytic theories
journal, May 2008

  • Huberman, T.; Tennant, D. A.; Cowley, R. A.
  • Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment, Vol. 2008, Issue 05
  • DOI: 10.1088/1742-5468/2008/05/P05017

Quantum criticality and universal scaling of a quantum antiferromagnet
journal, March 2005

  • Lake, Bella; Tennant, D. Alan; Frost, Chris D.
  • Nature Materials, Vol. 4, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1038/nmat1327

Dynamics of fractionalization in quantum spin liquids
journal, September 2015

Fractional Spin Fluctuations as a Precursor of Quantum Spin Liquids: Majorana Dynamical Mean-Field Study for the Kitaev Model
journal, October 2016

Mott Insulators in the Strong Spin-Orbit Coupling Limit: From Heisenberg to a Quantum Compass and Kitaev Models
journal, January 2009

Critical properties of the Kitaev-Heisenberg model
text, January 2012

Order-by-disorder and spin-orbital liquids in a distorted Heisenberg-Kitaev model
text, January 2014

Lifetimes of Antiferromagnetic Magnons in Two and Three Dimensions: Experiment, Theory, and Numerics
journal, July 2013

Thermal fractionalization of quantum spins in a Kitaev model: Temperature-linear specific heat and coherent transport of Majorana fermions
journal, September 2015

Honeycomb-Lattice Heisenberg-Kitaev Model in a Magnetic Field: Spin Canting, Metamagnetism, and Vortex Crystals
journal, December 2016

Spin-Wave Excitations Evidencing the Kitaev Interaction in Single Crystalline α − RuCl 3
journal, March 2017

Fully packed loop model on the honeycomb lattice
journal, February 1994

    Sort by:
    [ × clear filter / sort ]

    Works referencing / citing this record:

    Hidden Plaquette Order in a Classical Spin Liquid Stabilized by Strong Off-Diagonal Exchange
    journal, June 2019

    Seeing beyond the light: Vison and photon electrodynamics in quantum spin ice
    journal, July 2019

    Interlayer coupling effect on a bilayer Kitaev model
    journal, March 2018

    Microscopic mechanism for higher-spin Kitaev model
    text, January 2019

    Excitations in the field-induced quantum spin liquid state of α-RuCl3
    text, January 2018

    • Banerjee, A.; Lampen-Kelley, P.; Knolle, Johannes
    • Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository
    • DOI: 10.17863/cam.11029

    Interlayer Coupling Effect on a Bilayer Kitaev Model
    text, January 2017

      Sort by:
      [ × clear filter / sort ]

      Similar Records in DOE PAGES and OSTI.GOV collections: