Vestiges of Topological Phase Transitions in Kitaev Quantum Spin Liquids.
Phys Rev Lett
; 122(14): 147203, 2019 Apr 12.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-31050444
ABSTRACT
We investigate signatures of topological quantum phase transitions (TQPTs) between the Z_{2} quantum spin liquids (QSLs). In two spatial dimensions, Z_{2} QSLs and their TQPTs are only well defined at zero temperature (T=0), and it is imperative to clarify their observable signatures under nonzero temperatures. Here, we present the vestiges of TQPTs between Z_{2} QSLs with Majorana fermions in terms of thermal Hall conductivity κ_{xy} at nonzero temperatures. The κ_{xy}/T shows characteristic temperature dependences around TQPTs. We argue that an exponential upturn near T=0 and the peak of κ_{xy}/T around massive excitation energy are observable smoking-gun signals of the TQPTs. Quantum critical fan-shape temperature dependences are uncovered across TQPTs. We also perform the parton mean-field analysis on a modified Kitaev model with next-nearest neighbor interactions finding TQPTs between the phases with different Chern numbers and their vestiges self-consistently. We discuss the implication of our results to the recent experiments in α-RuCl_{3}.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Type of study:
Prognostic_studies
Language:
En
Journal:
Phys Rev Lett
Year:
2019
Document type:
Article