Evidence of anomalous Curie constants for nonmagnetic impurities in a critical 2-dimensional $JQ_3$ model on the honeycomb lattice

TL;DR

This study uses quantum Monte Carlo simulations to investigate the Curie constants of nonmagnetic impurities in a 2D $JQ_3$ honeycomb lattice model, revealing anomalously high values suggestive of fractional impurity spins.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of impurity Curie constants in the $JQ_3$ model, indicating potential fractionalization of impurity spins in this system.

Findings

Curie constants for impurities are greater than known theoretical values.

Data suggest possible fractional impurity spins in the $JQ_3$ model.

Finite-size effects prevent definitive conclusions but indicate a trend.

Abstract

The Curie constants $C^{*} = \lim_{T\rightarrow 0}T\chi_{\text{imp}}$ of a spin-1/2 and a spin-1 impurities are calculated using the quantum Monte Carlo simulations. Here the impurity susceptibility $\chi_{\text{imp}}$ is the difference between the uniform susceptibilities with and without the impurity and $T$ is the temperature. Moreover, the two-dimensional quantum $JQ_3$ model on the honeycomb lattice is considered as the host system. $T\chi_{\text{imp}}$ as a function $T$ is investigated in great detail. Remarkably, our data indicate strongly that $C^* > 0.25$ and $C^* > 2/3$ for the spin-1/2 and the spin-1 impurities, respectively. In particular, although no definite conclusion is obtained due to finite-size effects, we find the Curie constant associated with a spin-1/2 impurity likely converges to a value greater than the established result of 0.262(2) in the literature. The outcomes reached here provide certain evidence that fractional impurity spin is observed for the studied $JQ_3$ system.