Quantum spin liquids: a review

By L. Savary, L. Balents. Reports on progress in physics. Physical Society, 2016

2,084 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Quantum spin liquids may be considered ‘quantum disordered’ ground states of spin systems, in which zero-point fluctuations are so strong that they prevent conventional magnetic long-range order. More interestingly, quantum spin liquids are prototypical examples of ground states with massive many-body entanglement, which is of a degree sufficient to render these states distinct phases of matter. Their highly entangled nature imbues quantum spin liquids with unique physical aspects, such as non-local excitations, topological properties, and more. In this review, we discuss the nature of such phases and their properties based on paradigmatic models and general arguments, and introduce theoretical technology such as gauge theory and partons, which are conveniently used in the study of quantum spin liquids. An overview is given of the different types of quantum spin liquids and the models and theories used to describe them. We also provide a guide to the current status of experiments in relation to study quantum spin liquids, and to the diverse probes used therein.

Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Condensed Matter Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2f612e6203a89d26f61071fc8651399115bad780

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In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

In Condensed Matter Physics

Citations in the corpus

Gapless Symmetry-Protected Topological Order (2017, background): “Some exceptions include topological Mott insulators [56], topological Luttinger liquids [57, 58], gapless spin liquids [4, 59], the Gaffnian quantum Hall state [60], and the composite Fermi liquids in the half-filled Landau level [61, 62].”
Prediction of Toric Code Topological Order from Rydberg Blockade (2020, background): “[5] Lucile Savary and Leon Balents, “Quantum spin liquids: a review,” Reports on Progress in Physics 80, 016502 (2016).”
An introduction to spontaneous symmetry breaking (2019, background): “states, which are considered to be the most entangled states possible, though a thorough discussion of their entanglement properties goes beyond the scope of these lecture notes (see for example Ref. [107]). The possible connection between entanglement entropy and the classical, statistical entropy ”
Kitaev materials (2017, methodology): “In parallel, much attention has been drawn towards j = 1/2 Mott insulators that exhibit bonddirectional exchange interactions and are thought to exhibit unconventional forms of magnetism, such as the emergence of spin liquids [17, 18] or the formation of non-trivial spin textures.”
Quantum Hall physics : Hierarchies and conformal field theory techniques (2016, background): “Nonetheless, there is an enormous amount of research activity exploring other systems that have nontrivial topological properties (Hasan and Kane, 2010; Kallin and Berlinsky, 2016; Savary and Balents, 2016) and many such materials have recently been found.”