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We study the phase diagram of the Yao-Lee model with Kitaev-type spin-orbital interactions in the presence of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions and external magnetic fields. Unlike the Kitaev model, the Yao-Lee model can still be solved exactly under these perturbations due to the enlarged local Hilbert space. Through a variational analysis, we obtain a rich ground-state phase diagram that consists of a variety of vison crystals with periodic arrangements of background Z2 flux (i.e., visons). With an out-of-plane magnetic field, these phases have gapped bulk and chiral edge states, characterized by a Chern number ν and an associated chiral central charge c=ν/2 of edge states. We also find helical Majorana edge states that are protected by magnetic mirror symmetry. For the bilayer systems, we find that interlayer coupling can also stabilize new topological phases. Our results spotlight the tunability and the accompanying rich physics in exactly solvable spin-orbital generalizations of the Kitaev model.
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Topological and magnetic phase transitions in the bilayer Kitaev-Ising model
We investigate the phase diagram of a bilayer Kitaev honeycomb model with Ising interlayer interactions, deriving effective models via perturbation theory and performing Majorana mean-field theory calculations. We show that a diverse array of magnetic and topological phase transitions occur, depending on the direction of the interlayer Ising interaction and the relative sign of Kitaev interactions. When two layers have the same sign of the Kitaev interaction, a first-order transition from a Kitaev spin liquid to a magnetically ordered state takes place. The magnetic order points along the Ising axis and it is (anti)ferromagnetic for (anti)ferromagnetic Kitaev interactions. However, when two layers have opposite signs of the Kitaev interaction, we observe a notable weakening of magnetic ordering tendencies and the Kitaev spin liquid survives up to a remarkably larger interlayer exchange. Our mean-field analysis suggests the emergence of an intermediate gapped Z2 spin-liquid state, which eventually becomes unstable upon vison condensation. The confined phase is described by a highly frustrated 120∘ compass model. We furthermore use perturbation theory to study the model with the Ising axis pointing along the z axis or lying in the xy plane. In both cases, our analysis reveals the formation of one-dimensional Ising chains, which remain decoupled in perturbation theory, resulting in a subextensive ground-state degeneracy. Our results highlight the interplay between topological order and magnetic ordering tendencies in bilayer quantum spin liquids.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2234352
- PAR ID:
- 10488436
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Physical Society
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Physical Review B
- Volume:
- 109
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 2469-9950
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.109.024439
