Dirac-type nodal spin liquid revealed by refined quantum many-body solver using neural-network wave function, correlation ratio, and level spectroscopy

TL;DR

This paper uses advanced machine learning and computational methods to identify and characterize a gapless Dirac-type quantum spin liquid phase in a frustrated Heisenberg model, revealing fractionalized spinons and critical behaviors.

Contribution

It demonstrates the effectiveness of neural-network wave functions combined with correlation ratio and level spectroscopy to accurately detect and analyze a quantum spin liquid phase in a complex model.

Findings

Identification of a QSL phase in the $J_2/J_1$ range 0.49-0.54

Observation of gapless Dirac-like spinon dispersions

Discovery of coexisting and dual power-law decay of correlations

Abstract

Pursuing fractionalized particles that do not bear properties of conventional measurable objects, exemplified by bare particles in the vacuum such as electrons and elementary excitations such as magnons, is a challenge in physics. Here we show that a machine-learning method for quantum many-body systems that has achieved state-of-the-art accuracy reveals the existence of a quantum spin liquid (QSL) phase in the region $0.49\lesssim J_2/J_1\lesssim0.54$ convincingly in spin-1/2 frustrated Heisenberg model with the nearest and next-nearest neighbor exchanges, $J_1$ and $J_2$, respectively, on the square lattice. This is achieved by combining with the cutting-edge computational schemes known as the correlation ratio and level spectroscopy methods to mitigate the finite-size effects. The quantitative one-to-one correspondence between the correlations in the ground state and the excitation spectra enables the reliable identification and estimation of the QSL and its nature. The spin excitation spectra containing both singlet and triplet gapless Dirac-like dispersions signal the emergence of gapless fractionalized spin-1/2 Dirac-type spinons in the distinctive QSL phase. Unexplored critical behavior with coexisting and dual power-law decays of N\'{e}el antiferromagnetic and dimer correlations is revealed. The power-law decay exponents of the two correlations differently vary with $J_2/J_1$ in the QSL phase and thus have different values except for a single point satisfying the symmetry of the two correlations. The isomorph of excitations with the cuprate $d$-wave superconductors implies a tight connection between the present QSL and superconductivity. This achievement demonstrates that the quantum-state representation using machine learning techniques, which had mostly been limited to benchmarks, is a promising tool for investigating grand challenges in quantum many-body physics.