Quantum and Thermal Phase Transitions of the Triangular SU(3) Heisenberg Model under Magnetic Fields

We study the quantum and thermal phase transition phenomena of the SU(3) Heisenberg model on triangular lattice in the presence of magnetic fields. Performing a scaling analysis on large-size cluster mean-field calculations endowed with a density-matrix renormalization-group solver, we reveal the qu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2020-07, Vol.125 (5), p.1-057204, Article 057204
Main Authors: Yamamoto, Daisuke, Suzuki, Chihiro, Marmorini, Giacomo, Okazaki, Sho, Furukawa, Nobuo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cold atoms
Computer simulation
Heisenberg theory
Magnetic fields
Monte Carlo simulation
Phase transitions
Phases
Statistical models
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Summary:We study the quantum and thermal phase transition phenomena of the SU(3) Heisenberg model on triangular lattice in the presence of magnetic fields. Performing a scaling analysis on large-size cluster mean-field calculations endowed with a density-matrix renormalization-group solver, we reveal the quantum phases selected by quantum fluctuations from the massively degenerate classical ground-state manifold. The magnetization process up to saturation reflects three different magnetic phases. The low- and high-field phases have strong nematic nature, and especially the latter is found only via a nontrivial reconstruction of symmetry generators from the standard spin and quadrupolar description. We also perform a semiclassical Monte Carlo simulation to show that thermal fluctuations prefer the same three phases as well. Moreover, we find that exotic topological phase transitions driven by the binding-unbinding of fractional (half-)vortices take place, due to the nematicity of the low- and high-field phases. Possible experimental realization with alkaline-earth-like cold atoms is also discussed.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.057204