Evidence of a spin liquid phase in the frustrated honeycomb lattice

TL;DR

This paper provides evidence for a spin liquid phase in the frustrated honeycomb lattice Heisenberg model, using theoretical techniques to identify a spin-disordered intermediate phase with a spin gap.

Contribution

It introduces new computational data supporting the existence of a spin liquid phase in a specific frustrated lattice model, expanding understanding of quantum disordered states.

Findings

Identification of an intermediate spin-disordered phase

Presence of a spin gap in the phase

Short-range Ne9el correlations observed

Abstract

In the present paper we present some new data supporting the existence of a spin-disordered phase in the Heisenberg model on the honeycomb lattice with antiferromagnetic interactions up to third neighbors along the line J2=J3, predicted in [Phys. Rev. B 83, 094506 (2011)]. We use the Schwinger boson technique followed by a mean field decoupling and exact diagonalization for small systems to show the existence of an intermediate phase with a spin gap and short range N\'eel correlations in the strong quantum limit (S=1/2).