Anisotropic deconfined criticality in Dirac spin liquids

TL;DR

This paper studies a phase transition in quantum spin liquids on the square lattice, revealing an anisotropic critical point with distinct correlation signatures, relevant to frustrated antiferromagnets.

Contribution

It introduces a stable anisotropic fixed point for the transition between U(1) Dirac and Z2 spin liquids using a 1/Nf expansion, highlighting new critical behavior.

Findings

Identifies a stable fixed point with anisotropic spinon dispersion.

Calculates distinct angular correlation profiles for Ne9el and VBS phases.

Shows anisotropy affects monopole scaling dimensions.

Abstract

We analyze a Higgs transition from a U(1) Dirac spin liquid to a gapless $\mathbb{Z}_2$ spin liquid. This $\mathbb{Z}_2$ spin liquid is of relevance to the spin $S=1/2$ square lattice antiferromagnet, where recent numerical studies have given evidence for such a phase existing in the regime of high frustration between nearest neighbor and next-nearest neighbor antiferromagnetic interactions (the $J_1$-$J_2$ model), appearing in a parameter regime between the vanishing of N\'eel order and the onset of valence bond solid ordering. The proximate Dirac spin liquid is unstable to monopole proliferation on the square lattice, ultimately leading to N\'eel or valence bond solid ordering. As such, we conjecture that this Higgs transition describes the critical theory separating the gapless $\mathbb{Z}_2$ spin liquid of the $J_1$-$J_2$ model from one of the two proximate ordered phases. The transition into the other ordered phase can be described in a unified manner via a transition into an unstable SU(2) spin liquid, which we have analyzed in prior work. By studying the deconfined critical theory separating the U(1) Dirac spin liquid from the gapless $\mathbb{Z}_2$ spin liquid in a $1/N_f$ expansion, with $N_f$ proportional to the number of fermions, we find a stable fixed point with an anisotropic spinon dispersion and a dynamical critical exponent $z \neq 1$. We analyze the consequences of this anisotropic dispersion by calculating the angular profiles of the equal-time N\'eel and valence bond solid correlation functions, and we find them to be distinct. We also note the influence of the anisotropy on the scaling dimension of monopoles.