Entanglement Entropy as a Portal to the Physics of Quantum Spin Liquids

Grover, Tarun; Zhang, Yi; Vishwanath, Ashvin

doi:10.1088/1367-2630/15/2/025002

Entanglement Entropy as a Portal to the Physics of Quantum Spin Liquids

Feb 4, 2013

13 pages

Published in:

New J.Phys. 15 (2013) 025002

e-Print:

1302.0899 [cond-mat.str-el]

DOI:

10.1088/1367-2630/15/2/025002

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Abstract: (arXiv)

Quantum Spin Liquids (QSLs) are phases of interacting spins that do not order even at the absolute zero temperature, making it impossible to characterize them by a local order parameter. In this article, we review the unique view provided by the quantum entanglement on QSLs. We illustrate the crucial role of Topological Entanglement Entropy in diagnosing the non-local order in QSLs, using specific examples such as the Chiral Spin Liquid. We also demonstrate the detection of anyonic quasiparticles and their braiding statistics using quantum entanglement. In the context of gapless QSLs, we discuss the detection of emergent fermionic spinons in a bosonic wavefunction, by studying the size dependence of entanglement entropy.

Note:

Review article; 13 pages, 10 figures

References(2)

Figures(11)

[1]

Extracting Statistics from Topological Entanglement Entropy 8

[2]

Example: Semionic Statistics in Chiral Spin-Liquid from Entanglement Entropy 9 VI. Gapless QSLs and Entanglement 9 with Spinon Fermi Surface 10 B. Critical QSL with Nodal Spinons 10 C. Effect of Projection on Nested Fermi Surface 11 VII. Synopsis and Recent Developments 11 References 12 I. INTRODUCTION Quantum Spin Liquids (QSLs) are phases of strongly interacting spins that do not order even at absolute zero temperature and therefore, are not characterized by a Landau order parameter1. They are associated with remarkable phenomena such as fractional quantum numbers2-5, transmutation of statistics (eg. fermions appearing in a purely bosonic model)6,7, and enabling

A. Critical QSL