Symmetry breaking and competing valence bond states in the star lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ghosh, Pratyay, Koziol, Jan, Nyckees, Samuel, Schmidt, Kai Phillip, Mila, Frédéric
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866917148026208256
author Ghosh, Pratyay
Koziol, Jan
Nyckees, Samuel
Schmidt, Kai Phillip
Mila, Frédéric
author_facet Ghosh, Pratyay
Koziol, Jan
Nyckees, Samuel
Schmidt, Kai Phillip
Mila, Frédéric
contents We investigate the ground state phase diagram of the spin-$1/2$ antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on the star lattice using infinite projected entangled pair states (iPEPS) and high-order series expansions. The model includes two distinct couplings: $J_d$ on the dimer bonds and $J_t$ on the trimer bonds. While it is established that the system hosts a valence bond solid (VBS) phase for $J_d \ge J_t$, the ground state phase diagram for $J_d < J_t$ has remained unsettled. Our iPEPS simulations uncover a first-order phase transition at $J_d/J_t \approx 0.18$, significantly lower than previously reported estimates. Beyond this transition, we identify a close competition between two valence bond crystal (VBC) states: a columnar VBC and a $\sqrt{3} \times \sqrt{3}$ VBC, with the latter consistently exhibiting lower energy across all finite bond dimensions. The high-order series expansion supports this by finding that the $\sqrt{3} \times \sqrt{3}$ VBC state indeed becomes energetically favorable, but only at sixth order in perturbation theory, revealing the subtle nature of the competition between candidate states.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_05133
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Symmetry breaking and competing valence bond states in the star lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet
Ghosh, Pratyay
Koziol, Jan
Nyckees, Samuel
Schmidt, Kai Phillip
Mila, Frédéric
Strongly Correlated Electrons
We investigate the ground state phase diagram of the spin-$1/2$ antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on the star lattice using infinite projected entangled pair states (iPEPS) and high-order series expansions. The model includes two distinct couplings: $J_d$ on the dimer bonds and $J_t$ on the trimer bonds. While it is established that the system hosts a valence bond solid (VBS) phase for $J_d \ge J_t$, the ground state phase diagram for $J_d < J_t$ has remained unsettled. Our iPEPS simulations uncover a first-order phase transition at $J_d/J_t \approx 0.18$, significantly lower than previously reported estimates. Beyond this transition, we identify a close competition between two valence bond crystal (VBC) states: a columnar VBC and a $\sqrt{3} \times \sqrt{3}$ VBC, with the latter consistently exhibiting lower energy across all finite bond dimensions. The high-order series expansion supports this by finding that the $\sqrt{3} \times \sqrt{3}$ VBC state indeed becomes energetically favorable, but only at sixth order in perturbation theory, revealing the subtle nature of the competition between candidate states.
title Symmetry breaking and competing valence bond states in the star lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet
topic Strongly Correlated Electrons
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.05133