Gapless spin liquid and valence-bond solid in the <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:msub><mml:mi>J</mml:mi><mml:mn>1</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:math>-<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:msub><mml:mi>J</mml:mi><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:math> Heisenberg model on the square lattice: Insights from singlet and triplet excitations

Abstract

The spin-$1/2$ ${J}_{1}$-${J}_{2}$ Heisenberg model on the square lattice represents one of the simplest examples in which the effects of magnetic interactions may suppress magnetic order, eventually leading to a pure quantum phase with no local order parameters. This model has been extensively studied in the last three decades, with conflicting results. Here, by using Gutzwiller-projected wave functions and recently developed methods to assess the low-energy spectrum, we show the existence of a level crossing between the lowest-energy triplet and singlet excitations for ${J}_{2}/{J}_{1}\ensuremath{\approx}0.54$. This fact supports the existence of a phase transition between a gapless spin liquid (which is stable for $0.48\ensuremath{\lesssim}{J}_{2}/{J}_{1}\ensuremath{\lesssim}0.54$) and a valence-bond solid (for $0.54\ensuremath{\lesssim}{J}_{2}/{J}_{1}\ensuremath{\lesssim}0.6$), even though no clear sign of dimer order is visible in the correlations functions. These results, which confirm recent density-matrix renormalization calculations on cylindrical clusters [L. Wang and A. W. Sandvik, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 107202 (2018)], reconcile the contradicting results obtained within different approaches over the years.

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