Majorana spin liquids and projective realization of SU(2) spin symmetry

TL;DR

This paper revises the classification of SU(2) symmetric spin liquids, revealing new states with Majorana fermions and projective spin rotations, including stable gapless phases and non-Abelian anyons.

Contribution

It completes the PSG classification by incorporating projective spin rotations, identifying new Majorana spin liquid states with novel properties.

Findings

Identified two realizations of spin rotations on fermionic partons.

Discovered a stable gapless Majorana spin liquid phase.

Found gapped phases with non-Abelian vortex excitations.

Abstract

We revisit the fermionic parton approach to S = 1/2 quantum spin liquids with SU(2) spin rotation symmetry, and the associated projective symmetry group (PSG) classification. We point out that the existing PSG classification is incomplete; upon completing it, we find spin liquid states with S=1 and S=0 Majorana fermion excitations coupled to a deconfined Z2 gauge field. The crucial observation leading us to this result is that, like space group and time reversal symmetries, spin rotations can act projectively on the fermionic partons; that is, a spin rotation may be realized by simultaneous SU(2) spin and gauge rotations. We show that there are only two realizations of spin rotations acting on fermionic partons: the familiar naive realization where spin rotation is not accompanied by any gauge transformation, and a single type of projective realization. We discuss the PSG classification for states with projective spin rotations. To illustrate these results, we show that there are four such PSGs on the two-dimensional square lattice. We study the properties of the corresponding states, finding that one -- with gapless Fermi points -- is a stable phase beyond mean-field theory. In this phase, depending on parameters, a small Zeeman magnetic field can open a partial gap for the Majorana fermion excitations. Moreover, there are nearby gapped phases supporting Z2 vortex excitations obeying non-Abelian statistics. We conclude with a discussion of various open issues, including the challenging question of where such S=1 Majorana spin liquids may occur in models and in real systems.