Thermally induced metallic phase in a gapped quantum spin liquid: Monte Carlo study of the Kitaev model with parity projection
File(s)1807.07926v2.pdf (3.87 MB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Self, Chris N
Knolle, Johannes
Iblisdir, Sofyan
Pachos, Jiannis K
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Thermalization is a probabilistic process. As such, it is generally expected that when we increase the temperature of a system, its classical behavior dominates its quantum coherences. By employing the Gibbs state of a translationally invariant quantum spin liquid—Kitaev's honeycomb lattice model—we demonstrate that an insulating phase at T=0 becomes metallic purely by increasing temperature. In particular, we compute the finite-temperature distribution of energies and show that it diverges logarithmically, as we move to small energies. The corresponding wave functions become critical like at Anderson transitions. These characteristics are obtained within an exact Monte Carlo method that simulates the finite-temperature behavior of the Kitaev model. In particular, we take into account the projection onto the physical parity sectors, required for identifying the topological degeneracy of the model. Our work opens the possibility to detect thermal metal behavior in spin liquid experiments.
Date Issued
2019-01-25
Date Acceptance
2019-01-01
Citation
Physical Review B: Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, 2019, 99 (4)
ISSN
1098-0121
Publisher
American Physical Society
Journal / Book Title
Physical Review B: Condensed Matter and Materials Physics
Volume
99
Issue
4
Copyright Statement
©2019 American Physical Society
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000456811400003&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Subjects
Science & Technology
Technology
Physical Sciences
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Physics, Applied
Physics, Condensed Matter
Materials Science
Physics
FERMIONS
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 045142
Date Publish Online
2019-01-25