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In quantum magnetic materials, ordered phases induced by an applied magnetic field can be described as the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of magnon excitations. In the strongly frustrated system SrCu 2 (BO 3 ) 2 , no clear magnon BEC could be observed, pointing to an alternative mechanism, but the high fields required to probe this physics have remained a barrier to detailed investigation. Here we exploit the first purpose-built high-field neutron scattering facility to measure the spin excitations of SrCu 2 (BO 3 ) 2 up to 25.9 T and use cylinder matrix-product-states (MPS) calculations to reproduce the experimental spectra with high accuracy. Multiple unconventional features point to a condensation of S = 2 bound states into a spin-nematic phase, including the gradients of the one-magnon branches and the persistence of a one-magnon spin gap. This gap reflects a direct analogy with superconductivity, suggesting that the spin-nematic phase in SrCu 2 (BO 3 ) 2 is best understood as a condensate of bosonic Cooper pairs., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

The corner transfer matrix renormalization group (CTMRG) algorithm has been extensively used to investigate both classical and quantum two-dimensional (2D) lattice models. The convergence of the algorithm can strongly vary from model to model depending on the underlying geometry and symmetries, and the presence of algebraic correlations. An important factor in the convergence of the algorithm is the lattice symmetry, which can be broken due to the necessity of mapping the problem onto the square lattice. We propose a variant of the CTMRG algorithm, designed for models with C_{3}-symmetry, which we apply to the conceptually simple yet numerically challenging problem of the triangular lattice Ising antiferromagnet in a field, at zero and low temperatures. We study how the finite-temperature three-state Potts critical line in this model approaches the ground-state Kosterlitz-Thouless transition driven by a reduced field (h/T). In this particular instance, we show that the C_{3}-symmetric CTMRG leads to much more precise results than both existing results from exact diagonalization of transfer matrices and Monte Carlo.

Under magnetic fields, quantum magnets often undergo exotic phase transitions with various kinds of order. The discovery of a sequence of fractional magnetization plateaus in the Shastry-Sutherland compound SrCu 2 (BO 3 ) 2 has played a central role in the high-field research on quantum materials, but so far this system could only be probed up to half the saturation value of the magnetization. Here, we report the first experimental and theoretical investigation of this compound up to the saturation magnetic field of 140 T and beyond. Using ultrasound and magnetostriction techniques combined with extensive tensor-network calculations (iPEPS), several spin-supersolid phases are revealed between the 1/2 plateau and saturation (1/1 plateau). Quite remarkably, the sound velocity of the 1/2 plateau exhibits a drastic decrease of -50%, related to the tetragonal-to-orthorhombic instability of the checkerboard-type magnon crystal. The unveiled nature of this paradigmatic quantum system is a new milestone for exploring exotic quantum states of matter emerging in extreme conditions., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Magnetic topological insulators and semimetals are a class of crystalline solids whose properties are strongly influenced by the coupling between non-trivial electronic topology and magnetic spin configurations. Such materials can host exotic electromagnetic responses. Among these are topological insulators with certain types of antiferromagnetic order which are predicted to realize axion electrodynamics. Here we investigate the highly unusual helimagnetic phases recently reported in EuIn 2 As 2 , which has been identified as a candidate for an axion insulator. Using resonant elastic x-ray scattering we show that the two types of magnetic order observed in EuIn 2 As 2 are spatially uniform phases with commensurate chiral magnetic structures, ruling out a possible phase-separation scenario, and we propose that entropy associated with low energy spin fluctuations plays a significant role in driving the phase transition between them. Our results establish that the magnetic order in EuIn 2 As 2 satisfies the symmetry requirements for an axion insulator., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Using an SU(2) invariant finite-temperature tensor network algorithm, we provide strong numerical evidence in favor of an Ising transition in the collinear phase of the spin-1/2 J_{1}-J_{2} Heisenberg model on the square lattice. In units of J_{2}, the critical temperature reaches a maximal value of T_{c}/J_{2}≃0.18 around J_{2}/J_{1}≃1.0. It is strongly suppressed upon approaching the zero-temperature boundary of the collinear phase J_{2}/J_{1}≃0.6, and it vanishes as 1/log(J_{2}/J_{1}) in the large J_{2}/J_{1} limit, as predicted by Chandra et al., [Phys. Rev. Lett. 64, 88 (1990)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.64.88]. Enforcing the SU(2) symmetry is crucial to avoid the artifact of finite-temperature SU(2) symmetry breaking of U(1) algorithms, opening new perspectives in the investigation of the thermal properties of quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnets.

The 2-dimensional layered oxide material SrCu 2 (BO 3 ) 2 , long studied as a realization of the Shastry-Sutherland spin topology, exhibits a range of intriguing physics as a function of both hydrostatic pressure and magnetic field, with a still debated intermediate plaquette phase appearing at approximately 20 kbar and a possible deconfined critical point at higher pressure. Here, we employ a tunnel diode oscillator (TDO) technique to probe the behavior in the combined extreme conditions of high pressure, high magnetic field, and low temperature. We reveal an extensive phase space consisting of multiple magnetic analogs of the elusive supersolid phase and a magnetization plateau. In particular, a 10 × 2 supersolid and a 1/5 plateau, identified by infinite Projected Entangled Pair States (iPEPS) calculations, are found to rely on the presence of both magnetic and non-magnetic particles in the sea of dimer singlets. These states are best understood as descendants of the full-plaquette phase, the leading candidate for the intermediate phase of SrCu 2 (BO 3 ) 2 ., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

The triangular lattice with Ising magnetic moments is an archetypical example of geometric frustration. In the case of dipolar-coupled out-of-plane moments, the geometric frustration results in a disordered classical spin-liquid state at higher temperatures while the system is predicted to transition to an anti-ferromagnetic stripe ground state at low temperatures. In this work we fabricate artificial triangular Ising spin systems without and with uniaxial in-plane compression to tune the nature and temperature of the correlations. We probe the energy scale and nature of magnetic correlations by grazing-incidence small-angle neutron scattering. In particular, we apply a newly-developed empirical structure-factor model to describe the measured short-range correlated spin-liquid state, and find good agreement with theoretical predictions. We demonstrate that grazing-incidence neutron scattering on our high-quality samples, in conjunction with detailed modeling of the scattering using the Distorted Wave Born Approximation, can be used to experimentally quantify the spin-liquid-like correlations in highly-frustrated artificial spin systems.

At the liquid-gas phase transition in water, the density has a discontinuity at atmospheric pressure; however, the line of these first-order transitions defined by increasing the applied pressure terminates at the critical point 1 , a concept ubiquitous in statistical thermodynamics 2 . In correlated quantum materials, it was predicted 3 and then confirmed experimentally 4,5 that a critical point terminates the line of Mott metal-insulator transitions, which are also first-order with a discontinuous charge carrier density. In quantum spin systems, continuous quantum phase transitions 6 have been controlled by pressure 7,8 , applied magnetic field 9,10 and disorder 11 , but discontinuous quantum phase transitions have received less attention. The geometrically frustrated quantum antiferromagnet SrCu 2 (BO 3 ) 2 constitutes a near-exact realization of the paradigmatic Shastry-Sutherland model 12-14 and displays exotic phenomena including magnetization plateaus 15 , low-lying bound-state excitations 16 , anomalous thermodynamics 17 and discontinuous quantum phase transitions 18,19 . Here we control both the pressure and the magnetic field applied to SrCu 2 (BO 3 ) 2 to provide evidence of critical-point physics in a pure spin system. We use high-precision specific-heat measurements to demonstrate that, as in water, the pressure-temperature phase diagram has a first-order transition line that separates phases with different local magnetic energy densities, and that terminates at an Ising critical point. We provide a quantitative explanation of our data using recently developed finite-temperature tensor-network methods 17,20-22 . These results further our understanding of first-order quantum phase transitions in quantum magnetism, with potential applications in materials where anisotropic spin interactions produce the topological properties 23,24 that are useful for spintronic applications.

Chains of Rydberg atoms have emerged as an amazing playground to study quantum physics in 1D. Playing with inter-atomic distances and laser detuning, one can in particular explore the commensurate-incommensurate transition out of density waves through the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, and the possible presence of a chiral transition with dynamical exponent z > 1. Here, we address this problem theoretically with effective blockade models where the short-distance repulsions are replaced by a constraint of no double occupancy. For the period-4 phase, we show that there is an Ashkin-Teller transition point with exponent ν = 0.78 surrounded by a direct chiral transition with a dynamical exponent z = 1.11 and a Kibble-Zurek exponent μ = 0.41. For Rydberg atoms with a van der Waals potential, we suggest that the experimental value μ = 0.25 is due to a chiral transition with z ≃ 1.9 and ν ≃ 0.47 surrounding an Ashkin-Teller transition close to the 4-state Potts universality.

Motivated by the recent generalization of the Haldane conjecture to SU(3) chains [Lajkó et al., Nucl. Phys. B924, 508 (2017)NUPBBO0550-321310.1016/j.nuclphysb.2017.09.015] according to which a Haldane gap should be present for symmetric representations if the number of boxes in the Young diagram is a multiple of three, we develop a density matrix renormalization group algorithm based on standard Young tableaus to study the model with three boxes directly in the representations of the global SU(3) symmetry. We show that there is a finite gap between the singlet and the symmetric [3  0  0] sector Δ_{[3  0  0]}/J=0.040±0.006 where J is the antiferromagnetic Heisenberg coupling, and we argue on the basis of the structure of the low energy states that this is sufficient to conclude that the spectrum is gapped.

The dimerized quantum magnet BaCuSi_{2}O_{6} was proposed as an example of "dimensional reduction" arising near the magnetic-field-induced quantum critical point (QCP) due to perfect geometrical frustration of its interbilayer interactions. We demonstrate by high-resolution neutron spectroscopy experiments that the effective intrabilayer interactions are ferromagnetic, thereby excluding frustration. We explain the apparent dimensional reduction by establishing the presence of three magnetically inequivalent bilayers, with ratios 3∶2∶1, whose differing interaction parameters create an extra field-temperature scaling regime near the QCP with a nontrivial but nonuniversal exponent. We demonstrate by detailed quantum Monte Carlo simulations that the magnetic interaction parameters we deduce can account for all the measured properties of BaCuSi_{2}O_{6}, opening the way to a quantitative understanding of nonuniversal scaling in any modulated layered system.

Motivated by the recently observed intriguing mode splittings in a magnetic field with inelastic neutron scattering in the spin ladder compound (C_{5}H_{12}N)_{2}CuBr_{4} (BPCB), we investigate the nature of the spin ladder excitations using a density matrix renormalization group and analytical arguments. Starting from the fully frustrated ladder, for which we derive the low-energy spectrum, we show that bound states are generically present close to k=0 in the dynamical structure factor of spin ladders above H_{c1}, and that they are characterized by a field-independent binding energy and an intensity that grows with H-H_{c1}. These predictions are shown to explain quantitatively the split modes observed in BPCB.

Motivated by recent STM experiments, we explore the magnetic field induced Kondo effect that takes place at symmetry protected level crossings in finite Co adatom chains. We argue that the effective two-level system realized at a level crossing acts as an extended impurity coupled to the conduction electrons of the substrate by a distribution of Kondo couplings at the sites of the chain. Using auxiliary-field quantum Monte Carlo simulations, which quantitatively reproduce the field dependence of the zero-bias signal, we show that a proper Kondo resonance is present at the sites where the effective Kondo coupling dominates. Our modeling and numerical simulations provide a theoretical basis for the interpretation of the STM spectrum in terms of level crossings of the Co adatom chains.

Building on the mapping of large-S spin chains onto the O(3) nonlinear σ model with coupling constant 2/S, and on general properties of that model (asymptotic freedom, implying that perturbation theory is valid at high energy, and Elitzur's conjecture that rotationally invariant quantities are infrared finite in perturbation theory), we use the Holstein-Primakoff representation to derive analytic expressions for the equal-time and dynamical spin-spin correlations valid at distances smaller than S^{-1}exp(πS) or at energies larger than JS^{2}exp(-πS), where J is the Heisenberg exchange coupling. This is supported by comparing the static correlations with quantum Monte Carlo simulations for S=5/2.

Impurities often play a defining role in the ground states of frustrated quantum magnets. Studies of their effects are crucial in understanding of the phase diagram in these materials. SrCu 2 (BO 3 ) 2 , an experimental realization of the Shastry-Sutherland (SS) lattice, provides a unique model system for such studies using both experimental and numerical approaches. Here we report effects of impurities on the crystals of bound states, and doping-induced emergent ground states in Mg-doped SrCu 2 (BO 3 ) 2 , which remain stable in high magnetic fields. Using four complementary magnetometry techniques and theoretical simulations, a rich impurity-induced phenomenology at high fields is discovered. The results demonstrate a rare example in which even a small doping concentration interacts strongly with both triplets and bound states of triplets, and thus plays a significant role in the magnetization process even at high magnetic fields. Our findings provide insights into the study of impurity effects in geometrically frustrated quantum magnets.

We investigate the nature of the phase transition between the period-three charge-density wave and the disordered phase of a hard-boson model proposed in the context of cold-atom experiments. Building on a density-matrix renormalization group algorithm that takes full advantage of the hard-boson constraints, we study systems with up to 9000 sites and calculate the correlation length and the wave vector of the incommensurate short-range correlations with unprecedented accuracy. We provide strong numerical evidence that there is an intermediate floating phase far enough from the integrable Potts point, while in its vicinity, our numerical data are consistent with a unique transition in the Huse-Fisher chiral universality class.

We consider the finite-temperature phase diagram of the S=1/2 frustrated Heisenberg bilayer. Although this two-dimensional system may show magnetic order only at zero temperature, we demonstrate the presence of a line of finite-temperature critical points related to the line of first-order transitions between the dimer-singlet and -triplet regimes. We show by high-precision quantum Monte Carlo simulations, which are sign-free in the fully frustrated limit, that this critical point is in the Ising universality class. At zero temperature, the continuous transition between the ordered bilayer and the dimer-singlet state terminates on the first-order line, giving a quantum critical end point, and we use tensor-network calculations to follow the first-order discontinuities in its vicinity.

We investigate manifestations of topological order in monoaxial helimagnet Cr_{1/3}NbS_{2} by performing transport measurements on ultrathin crystals. Upon sweeping the magnetic field perpendicularly to the helical axis, crystals thicker than one helix pitch (48 nm) but much thinner than the magnetic domain size (∼1  μm) are found to exhibit sharp and hysteretic resistance jumps. We show that these phenomena originate from transitions between topological sectors with a different number of magnetic solitons. This is confirmed by measurements on crystals thinner than 48 nm-in which the topological sector cannot change-that do not exhibit any jump or hysteresis. Our results show the ability to deterministically control the topological sector of finite-size Cr_{1/3}NbS_{2} and to detect intersector transitions by transport measurements.

We show that, in the presence of a π/2 artificial gauge field per plaquette, Mott insulating phases of ultracold fermions with SU(N) symmetry and one particle per site generically possess an extended chiral phase with intrinsic topological order characterized by an approximate ground space of N low-lying singlets for periodic boundary conditions, and by chiral edge states described by the SU(N)_{1} Wess-Zumino-Novikov-Witten conformal field theory for open boundary conditions. This has been achieved by extensive exact diagonalizations for N between 3 and 9, and by a parton construction based on a set of N Gutzwiller projected fermionic wave functions with flux π/N per triangular plaquette. Experimental implications are briefly discussed.

Using a specially designed Monte Carlo algorithm with directed loops, we investigate the triangular lattice Ising antiferromagnet with coupling beyond the nearest neighbors. We show that the first-order transition from the stripe state to the paramagnet can be split, giving rise to an intermediate nematic phase in which algebraic correlations coexist with a broken symmetry. Furthermore, we demonstrate the emergence of several properties of a more topological nature such as fractional edge excitations in the stripe state, the proliferation of double domain walls in the nematic phase, and the Kasteleyn transition between them. Experimental implications are briefly discussed.

Recent experiments on the Ba(3)XSb(2)O(9) family have revealed materials that potentially realize spin- and spin-orbital liquid physics. However, the lattice structure of these materials is complicated due to the presence of charged X(2+)-Sb(5+) dumbbells, with two possible orientations. To model the lattice structure, we consider a frustrated model of charged dumbbells on the triangular lattice, with long-range Coulomb interactions. We study this model using Monte Carlo simulation, and find a freezing temperature, T(frz), at which the simulated structure factor matches well to low-temperature x-ray diffraction data for Ba(3)CuSb(2)O(9). At T=T(frz) we find a complicated "branching" structure of superexchange-linked X(2+) clusters, which form a fractal pattern with fractal dimension d(f)=1.90. We show that this gives a natural explanation for the presence of orphan spins. Finally we provide a plausible mechanism by which such dumbbell disorder can promote a spin-orbital resonant state with delocalized orphan spins.

We report on the real space profile of spin polarons in the quasi-two-dimensional frustrated dimer spin system SrCu(2)(BO(3))(2) doped with 0.16% of Zn. The (11)B nuclear magnetic resonance spectrum exhibits 15 additional boron sites near nonmagnetic Zn impurities. With the help of exact diagonalizations of finite clusters, we have deduced from the boron spectrum, the distribution of local magnetizations at the Cu sites with fine spatial resolution, providing direct evidence for an extended spin polaron. The results are confronted with those of other experiments performed on doped and undoped samples of SrCu(2)(BO(3))(2).

We investigate the structure of the spectrum of antiferromagnetically coupled spin-1 bosons on a square lattice using degenerate perturbation theory and exact diagonalizations of finite clusters. We show that the superfluid phase develops an Anderson tower of states typical of nematic long-range order with broken SU(2) symmetry. We further show that this order persists into the Mott-insulating phase down to zero hopping for one boson per site and down to a critical hopping for two bosons per site, in agreement with mean-field and quantum Monte Carlo results. The connection with the transition between a fragmented condensate and a polar one in a single trap is briefly discussed.

We investigate by angle-resolved photoemission the electronic structure of in situ grown tetragonal CuO, a synthetic quasi-two-dimensional edge-sharing cuprate. We show that, in spite of the very different nature of the copper oxide layers, with twice as many Cu in the CuO layers of tetragonal CuO as compared to the CuO(2) layers of the high-T(c) cuprates, the low-energy electronic excitations are surprisingly similar, with a Zhang-Rice singlet dispersing on weakly coupled cupratelike sublattices. This system should thus be considered as a member of the high-T(c) cuprate family, with, however, interesting differences due to the intralayer coupling between the cupratelike sublattices.

Building on advanced results on permutations, we show that it is possible to construct, for each irreducible representation of SU(N), an orthonormal basis labeled by the set of standard Young tableaux in which the matrix of the Heisenberg SU(N) model (the quantum permutation of N-color objects) takes an explicit and extremely simple form. Since the relative dimension of the full Hilbert space to that of the singlet space on n sites increases very fast with N, this formulation allows us to extend exact diagonalizations of finite clusters to much larger values of N than accessible so far. Using this method, we show that, on the square lattice, there is long-range color order for SU(5), spontaneous dimerization for SU(8), and evidence in favor of a quantum liquid for SU(10).

Using infinite projected entangled-pair states, we show that the Shastry-Sutherland model in an external magnetic field has low-magnetization plateaus which, in contrast to previous predictions, correspond to crystals of bound states of triplets, and not to crystals of triplets. The first sizable plateaus appear at magnetization 1/8, 2/15 and 1/6, in agreement with experiments on the orthogonal-dimer antiferromagnet SrCu2(BO3)2, and they can be naturally understood as regular patterns of bound states, including the intriguing 2/15 one. We also show that, even in a confined geometry, two triplets bind into a localized bound state with Sz=2. Finally, we discuss the role of competing domain-wall and supersolid phases, as well as that of additional anisotropic interactions.

The magnetization process of the orthogonal-dimer antiferromagnet SrCu2(BO3)2 is investigated in high magnetic fields of up to 118 T. A 1/2 plateau is clearly observed in the field range 84 to 108 T in addition to 1/8, 1/4, and 1/3 plateaus at lower fields. Using a combination of state-of-the-art numerical simulations, the main features of the high-field magnetization, a 1/2 plateau of width 24 T, a 1/3 plateau of width 34 T, and no 2/5 plateau, are shown to agree quantitatively with the Shastry-Sutherland model if the ratio of inter- to intradimer exchange interactions J'/J=0.63. It is further predicted that the intermediate phase between the 1/3 and 1/2 plateaus is not uniform but consists of a 1/3 supersolid followed by a 2/5 supersolid and possibly a domain-wall phase, with a reentrance into the 1/3 supersolid above the 1/2 plateau.

We report on NMR and torque measurements on the frustrated quasi-two-dimensional spin-dimer system SrCu(2)(BO(3))(2) in magnetic fields up to 34 T that reveal a sequence of magnetization plateaus at 1/8, 2/15, 1/6, and 1/4 of the saturation and two incommensurate phases below and above the 1/6 plateau. The magnetic structures determined by NMR involve a stripe order of triplets in all plateaus, suggesting that the incommensurate phases originate from proliferation of domain walls. We propose that the magnetization process of SrCu(2)(BO(3))(2) is best described as an incomplete devil's staircase.

Motivated by the possibility to load multicolor fermionic atoms in optical lattices, we study the entropy dependence of the properties of the one-dimensional antiferromagnetic SU(N) Heisenberg model, the effective model of the SU(N) Hubbard model with one particle per site (filling 1/N) in the large U/t limit. Using continuous-time world-line Monte Carlo simulations for N=2-5, we show that characteristic short-range correlations develop at low temperature as a precursor of the ground state algebraic correlations. We also calculate the entropy as a function of temperature, and we show that the first sign of short-range order appears at an entropy per particle that increases with N and already reaches 0.8k(B) at N=4, in the range of experimentally accessible values.

Using extensive classical and quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we investigate the ground-state phase diagram of the fully frustrated transverse field Ising model on the square lattice. We show that pure columnar order develops in the low-field phase above a surprisingly large length scale, below which an effective U(1) symmetry is present. The same conclusion applies to the quantum dimer model with purely kinetic energy, to which the model reduces in the zero-field limit, as well as to the stacked classical version of the model. By contrast, the 2D classical version of the model is shown to develop plaquette order. Semiclassical arguments show that the transition from plaquette to columnar order is a consequence of quantum fluctuations.

We show that spin S Heisenberg spin chains with an additional three-body interaction of the form (S(i-1)·S(i))(S(i)·S(i+1))+H.c. possess fully dimerized ground states if the ratio of the three-body interaction to the bilinear one is equal to 1/[4S(S+1)-2]. This result generalizes the Majumdar-Ghosh point of the J1-J2 chain, to which the present model reduces for S=1/2. For S=1, we use the density matrix renormalization group method to show that the transition between the Haldane and the dimerized phases is continuous with a central charge c=3/2. Finally, we show that such a three-body interaction appears naturally in a strong-coupling expansion of the Hubbard model, and we discuss the consequences for the dimerization of actual antiferromagnetic chains.

Using infinite projected entangled-pair states, exact diagonalization, and flavor-wave theory, we show that the SU(4) Heisenberg model undergoes a spontaneous dimerization on the square lattice, in contrast with its SU(2) and SU(3) counterparts, which develop Néel and three-sublattice stripelike long-range order. Since the ground state of a dimer is not a singlet for SU(4) but a 6-dimensional irreducible representation, this leaves the door open for further symmetry breaking. We provide evidence that, unlike in SU(4) ladders, where dimers pair up to form singlet plaquettes, here the SU(4) symmetry is additionally broken, leading to a gapless spectrum in spite of the broken translational symmetry.

Since the discovery of superfluidity in 4He and Landau's phenomenological theory, the relationship between Bose condensation and superfluidity has been intensely debated. 4He is known by now to be both superfluid and condensed at low temperature, and more generally, in dimension D≥2, all superfluid bosonic models realized in experiments are condensed in their ground state, the most recent example being provided by ultracold bosonic atoms trapped in an optical lattice. In this Letter, it is shown that a 2D gas of bosons which is not condensed at T=0 can be achieved by populating a layer through a frustrated proximity effect from a superfluid reservoir. This condensate-free bosonic fluid is further shown to be a superfluid with incommensurate correlations.

Combining a semiclassical analysis with exact diagonalizations, we show that the ground state of the SU(3) Heisenberg model on the square lattice develops three-sublattice long-range order. This surprising pattern for a bipartite lattice with only nearest-neighbor interactions is shown to be the consequence of a subtle quantum order-by-disorder mechanism. By contrast, thermal fluctuations favor two-sublattice configurations via entropic selection. These results are shown to extend to the cubic lattice, and experimental implications for the Mott-insulating states of three-flavor fermionic atoms in optical lattices are discussed.

We show that the spin-liquid phase of the half-filled Hubbard model on the triangular lattice can be described by a pure spin model. This is based on a high-order strong coupling expansion (up to order 12) using perturbative continuous unitary transformations. The resulting spin model is consistent with a transition from three-sublattice long-range magnetic order to an insulating spin-liquid phase, and with a jump of the double occupancy at the transition. Exact diagonalizations of both models show that the effective spin model is quantitatively accurate well into the spin-liquid phase, and a comparison with the Gutzwiller projected Fermi sea suggests a gapless spectrum and a spinon Fermi surface.

We show that the chirality of triangular antiferromagnetic clusters can be used as a qubit even if it is entirely decoupled from the total spin of the cluster. In particular, we estimate the orbital moment associated with the chirality, and we show that it can be large enough to allow a direct measurement of the chirality with a field perpendicular to the cluster. Consequences for molecular magnets are discussed, and an alternative implementation with Cu atoms on a surface is proposed, for which one- and two-qubit gates are worked out in detail. Decoherence effects are also discussed.

Building on recent neutron and NMR experiments, we investigate the field-induced exotic criticality observed in the frustrated compound BaCuSi2O6 using a frustrated model with two types of bilayers. A semiclassical treatment of the effective hard-core boson model shows that perfect interlayer frustration leads to a 2D-like critical exponent varphi=1 without logarithmic corrections and to a 3D low temperature phase with different but nonvanishing triplet populations in both types of bilayers. These further suggest a simple phenomenology in terms of a field-dependent transverse coupling in the context of which we reproduce the entire field-temperature phase diagram with quantum Monte Carlo simulations.

Motivated by the recent report of broken time-reversal symmetry and zero momentum magnetic scattering in underdoped cuprates, we investigate under which circumstances orbital currents circulating inside a unit cell might be stabilized in extended Hubbard models that explicitly include oxygen orbitals. Using Gutzwiller projected variational wave functions that treat on an equal footing all instabilities, we show that orbital currents indeed develop on finite clusters and that they are stabilized in the thermodynamic limit if additional interactions, e.g., strong hybridization with apical oxygens, are included in the model.

Motivated by the remarkable properties of SrCu2(BO3) 2 in a magnetic field, we use perturbative continuous unitary transformations to determine the magnetization plateaux of the Shastry-Sutherland model, unveiling an unexpected sequence of plateaux progressively appearing at 2/9, 1/6, 1/9, and 2/15 upon increasing the interdimer coupling. We predict that a 1/6 plateau should be present in SrCu2(BO3)2, even if residual interactions beyond the Shastry-Sutherland are strong enough to modify the other plateaux below 1/3. The method is extended to calculate the magnetization profile within the plateaux, leading to a local structure around triplons that agrees with NMR results on SrCu2(BO3) 2.

We show that correlated hopping of triplets, which is often the dominant source of kinetic energy in dimer-based frustrated quantum magnets, produces a remarkably strong tendency to form supersolid phases in a magnetic field. These phases are characterized by simultaneous modulation and ordering of the longitudinal and transverse magnetization, respectively. Using quantum Monte Carlo and a semiclassical approach for an effective hard-core boson model with nearest-neighbor repulsion on a square lattice, we prove, in particular, that a supersolid phase can exist even if the repulsion is not strong enough to stabilize an insulating phase at half-filling. Experimental implications for frustrated quantum antiferromagnets in a magnetic field at zero and finite temperature are discussed.

The doped two-dimensional quantum dimer model is investigated by numerical techniques on the square and triangular lattices, with significantly different results. On the square lattice, at small enough doping, there is always a phase separation between an insulating valence-bond solid and a uniform superfluid phase, whereas on the triangular lattice, doping leads directly to a uniform superfluid in a large portion of the resonating-valence-bond (RVB) phase. Under an applied Aharonov-Bohm flux, the superfluid exhibits quantization in terms of half-flux quanta, consistent with Q=2e elementary charge quanta in transport properties.

We show that Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interactions can substantially modify the phase diagram of spin-1/2 Heisenberg ladders in a magnetic field provided they compete with exchange. For nonfrustrated ladders, they induce a local magnetization along the DM vector that turns the gapless intermediate phase into an Ising phase with broken translational symmetry, while for frustrated ladders, they extend the Ising order of the half-integer plateau to the surrounding gapless phases of the purely Heisenberg case. Implications for experimental ladder and dimer systems are discussed.

We investigate the thermodynamic properties of a field-induced supersolid phase in a 2D quantum antiferromagnet model. Using quantum Monte Carlo simulations, a very rich phase diagram is mapped out in the temperature-magnetic-field plane, with an extended supersolid region where a diagonal (solid) order coexists with a finite XY spin stiffness (superfluid). The various quantum and thermal transitions out of the supersolid state are characterized. Experimental consequences in the context of field-induced magnetization plateau materials are briefly discussed.

We present a 2D NMR investigation of the gapped spin-1/2 compound Cu2(C5H10N2D2)2Cl4. Our measurements reveal the presence of a magnetic field-induced transverse staggered magnetization (TSM) which persists well below and above the field-induced 3D long-range magnetically ordered (FIMO) phase. The symmetry of this TSM is different from that of the TSM induced by the order parameter of the FIMO phase. Its origin, field dependence, and symmetry can be explained by an intradimer Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, as shown by DMRG calculations on a spin-1/2 ladder. This leads us to predict that the transition into the FIMO phase is not in the BEC universality class.

Using mean-field theory, exact diagonalizations, and SU(3) flavor theory, we have precisely mapped out the phase diagram of the S = 1 bilinear-biquadratic Heisenberg model on the triangular lattice in a magnetic field, with emphasis on the quadrupolar phases and their excitations. In particular, we show that ferroquadrupolar order can coexist with short-range helical magnetic order, and that the antiferroquadrupolar phase is characterized by a remarkable 2/3 magnetization plateau, in which one site per triangle retains quadrupolar order while the other two are polarized along the field. Implications for actual S=1 magnets are discussed.

Motivated by the physics of mobile triplets in frustrated quantum magnets, the properties of a two-dimensional model of bosons with correlated hopping are investigated. A mean-field analysis reveals the presence of a pairing phase without single-particle Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) at low densities for sufficiently strong correlated hopping, and of an Ising quantum phase transition towards a BEC phase at larger density. The physical arguments supporting the mean-field results and their implications for bosonic and quantum spin systems are discussed.

We study a model of close-packed dimers on the square lattice with a nearest neighbor interaction between parallel dimers. This model corresponds to the classical limit of quantum dimer models [D. S. Rokhsar and S. A. Kivelson, Phys. Rev. Lett. 61, 2376 (1988)]. By means of Monte Carlo and transfer matrix calculations, we show that this system undergoes a Kosterlitz-Thouless transition separating a low temperature ordered phase where dimers are aligned in columns from a high temperature critical phase with continuously varying exponents. This is understood by constructing the corresponding Coulomb gas, whose coupling constant is computed numerically. We also discuss doped models and implications on the finite-temperature phase diagram of quantum dimer models.

Low temperature (3.9 K) scanning-tunneling spectroscopy on a hexagonal superlattice of Ce adatoms on Ag(111) reveals site-dependent characteristic features in differential conductance spectra and in spectroscopic images at atomic-scale spatial resolution. Using a tight-binding model, we relate the overall spectral structures to the scattering of Ag(111) surface-state electrons by the Ce adatoms, the site dependence to the disorder induced by imperfections of the superlattice, and the opening of a gap in the local density of states to the observed stabilization of superlattices with adatom distances in the range of 2.3-3.5 nm.

We study the thermal properties of the classical antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model with both nearest (J1) and next-nearest (J2) exchange couplings on the square lattice by extensive Monte Carlo simulations. We show that, for J2/J1>1/2, thermal fluctuations give rise to an effective Z2 symmetry leading to a finite-temperature phase transition. We provide strong numerical evidence that this transition is in the 2D Ising universality class, and that T(c)-->0 with an infinite slope when J2/J1-->1/2.

We investigate a model of a frustrated spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain coupled to adiabatic phonons with a general form of magnetoelastic coupling. For large enough frustration and lattice coupling, a new tetramerized phase with three different bond lengths is found. We argue that the zigzag spin-1/2 chain LiV2O5 might be a good candidate to observe such a phase.