Systematic construction of spin liquids on the square lattice from tensor networks with SU(2) symmetry

TL;DR

This paper develops a classification scheme for SU(2)-symmetric tensor network states on the square lattice, enabling systematic construction and identification of various spin liquids, including chiral topological states with edge modes.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive classification and explicit construction of SU(2)-symmetric PEPS with bond dimension up to 6, revealing new spin liquid states and generalizing known models.

Findings

Recovered all known SU(2)-symmetric PEPS on the square lattice.

Constructed families of spin liquids with various symmetry breakings.

Identified chiral topological spin liquids with edge modes.

Abstract

We elaborate a simple classification scheme of all rank-5 SU(2)-spin rotational symmetric tensors according to i) the on-site physical spin-$S$, (ii) the local Hilbert space $V^{\otimes 4}$ of the four virtual (composite) spins attached to each site and (iii) the irreducible representations of the $C_{4v}$ point group of the square lattice. We apply our scheme to draw a complete list of all SU(2)-symmetric translationally and rotationally-invariant Projected Entangled Pair States (PEPS) with bond dimension $D\leqslant 6$. All known SU(2)-symmetric PEPS on the square lattice are recovered and simple generalizations are provided in some cases. More generally, to each of our symmetry class can be associated a $({\cal D}-1)$-dimensional manifold of spin liquids (potentially) preserving lattice symmetries and defined in terms of ${\cal D}$ independent tensors of a given bond dimension $D$. In addition, generic (low-dimensional) families of PEPS explicitly breaking either (i) particular point-group lattice symmetries (lattice nematics) or (ii) time reversal symmetry (chiral spin liquids) or (iii) SU(2)-spin rotation symmetry down to $U(1)$ (spin nematics or N\'eel antiferromagnets) can also be constructed. We apply this framework to search for new topological chiral spin liquids characterized by well-defined chiral edge modes, as revealed by their entanglement spectrum. In particular, we show how the symmetrization of a double-layer PEPS leads to a chiral topological state with a gapless edge described by a SU(2)$_2$ Wess-Zumino-Witten model.