Ground-state and finite-temperature properties of spin liquid phase in the J1-J2 honeycomb model

TL;DR

This study investigates the ground-state and finite-temperature behaviors of a frustrated J1-J2 honeycomb Heisenberg model, revealing an exotic spin liquid phase and its robustness under external magnetic fields, with implications for experimental identification.

Contribution

It applies the Schwinger boson technique to map out the phase diagram and properties of the spin liquid phase in the J1-J2 honeycomb model, providing new insights into its stability and characteristics.

Findings

Spin liquid phase exists for 0.21 < J2/J1 < 0.43.

The spin liquid state remains stable under external magnetic fields.

Temperature and magnetic field influence on specific heat and susceptibility are characterized.

Abstract

In this paper we analyze the groundstate and finite-temperature properties of a frustrated Heisenberg $J_1-J_2$ model on a honeycomb lattice by employing the Schwinger boson technique. The phase diagram and spin gap as functions of ${J}_{2}/{J}_{1}$ are presented, showing that the exotic spin liquid phase lies in $0.21<{J}_{2}/{J}_{1} <0.43$. The temperature and magnetic-field dependences of specific heat, magnetic susceptibility and Knight shift are also presented. We find the spin liquid state is robust with respect to external magnetic field. These results provide clear information characterizing unusual properties of the exotic spin liquid phase for further experiments.