Low energy excitations of the kagome antiferromagnet and the spin gap issue

TL;DR

This paper uses exact diagonalizations to analyze low energy excitations in various lattice models, focusing on the kagome lattice, to explore the existence of a gapless spin liquid and quantum criticality.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the low-lying energy levels and the potential gapless spin liquid state in the kagome antiferromagnet through detailed spectral analysis.

Findings

Differences between gapless and gapped systems are characterized.

Evidence supporting the proximity to a quantum critical point.

Small intra-S channel energy scale impacts low-temperature dynamics.

Abstract

In this paper we report the latest results of exact diagonalizations of SU(2) invariant models on various lattices (square, triangular, hexagonal, checkerboard and kagome lattices). We focus on the low lying levels in each S sector. The differences in behavior between gapless systems and gapped ones are exhibited. The plausibility of a gapless spin liquid in the Heisenberg model on the kagome lattice is discussed. A rough estimate of the spin susceptibility in such an hypothesis is given.The evolution of the intra-S channel spectra under the effect of a small perturbation is consistent with the proximity of a quantum critical point. We emphasize that the very small intra-S channel energy scale observed in exact spectra is a very interesting information to understand the low T dynamics of this model.