Exotic S=1 spin liquid state with fermionic excitations on triangular lattice

ORAL

Abstract

Motivated by recent experiments on the material Ba$_3$NiSb$_2$O$_9$ we consider a spin-one quantum antiferromagnet on a triangular lattice with the Heisenberg bilinear and biquadratic exchange interactions and a single-ion anisotropy. Using a fermionic ``triplon'' representation for spins, we study the phase diagram within mean-field theory. In addition to a fully gapped spin-liquid ground state, we find a state where one gapless triplon mode with Fermi surface coexists with $d + id$ topological pairing of the other triplons. Despite the existence of a Fermi surface, this ground state has fully gapped bulk spin excitations. Such a state has linear in-temperature specific heat and constant in-plane spin susceptibility, with an unusually high Wilson ratio.

Authors

  • Maksym Serbyn

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Todadri Senthil

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT

  • Patrick Lee

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT