Self-consistent spin-wave analysis of the 1/3 magnetization plateau in the kagome antiferromagnet

TL;DR

This paper introduces a modified self-consistent spin-wave theory to analyze the 1/3 magnetization plateau in the kagome antiferromagnet, aligning well with recent numerical findings.

Contribution

It presents a novel self-consistent spin-wave approach that stabilizes the 1/3 plateau across various magnetic fields and spin values, improving understanding of quantum effects in kagome antiferromagnets.

Findings

The 1/3 plateau is stabilized over a broad magnetic field range.

Critical magnetic fields are accurately predicted.

Results agree with recent numerical simulations.

Abstract

We propose a modified spin-wave theory to study the 1/3 magnetization plateau of the antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on the kagome lattice. By the self-consistent inclusion of quantum corrections, the 1/3 plateau is stabilized over a broad range of magnetic fields for all spin quantum numbers, S. The values of the critical magnetic fields and the widths of the magnetization plateaus are fully consistent with recent numerical results from exact diagonalization and infinite projected entangled paired states.