Correlation holes and slow dynamics induced by fractional statistics in gapped quantum spin liquids

TL;DR

This paper investigates how fractional statistics between spinons and visons in gapped quantum spin liquids lead to correlation holes and slow dynamics, affecting thermodynamics and transport, with potential experimental signatures.

Contribution

It reveals a feedback mechanism where spinons localize on vison patches, a novel effect influenced by fractional statistics in quantum spin liquids.

Findings

Spinons become localized on temperature-dependent vison patches.

The interplay affects thermodynamic and transport properties.

Potential experimental signatures of fractional statistics are identified.

Abstract

Realistic model Hamiltonians for quantum spin liquids frequently exhibit a large separation of energy scales between their elementary excitations. At intermediate, experimentally relevant temperatures, some excitations are sparse and hop coherently, whereas others are thermally incoherent and dense. Here we study the interplay of two such species of quasiparticle, dubbed spinons and visons, which are subject to nontrivial mutual statistics -- one of the hallmarks of quantum spin liquid behaviour. Our results for $\mathbb{Z}_2$ quantum spin liquids show an intriguing feedback mechanism, akin to the Nagaoka effect, whereby spinons become localised on temperature-dependent patches of expelled visons. This phenomenon has important consequences for the thermodynamic and transport properties of the system, as well as for its response to quenches in temperature. We argue that these effects can be measured in experiments and may provide viable avenues for obtaining signatures of quantum spin liquid behaviour.