Dynamics of a two-dimensional quantum spin liquid: signatures of emergent Majorana fermions and fluxes

Journal article

Topological states of matter present a wide variety of striking new phenomena. Prominent among these is the fractionalisation of electrons into unusual particles: Majorana fermions [1], Laughlin quasiparticles [2] or magnetic monopoles [3]. Their detection, however, is fundamentally complicated by the lack of any local order, such as, for example, the magnetisation in a ferromagnet. While there are now several instances of candidate topological spin liquids [4], their identification remains challenging [5]. Here, we provide a complete and exact theoretical study of the dynamical structure factor of a two-dimensional quantum spin liquid in gapless and gapped phases. We show that there are direct signatures - qualitative and quantitative - of the Majorana fermions and gauge fluxes emerging in Kitaev's honeycomb model. These include counterintuitive manifestations of quantum number fractionalisation, such as a neutron scattering response with a gap even in the presence of gapless excitations, and a sharp component despite the fractionalisation of electron spin. Our analysis identifies new varieties of the venerable X-ray edge problem and explores connections to the physics of quantum quenches.

Authors: Knolle, J; Kovrizhin, D; Chalker, J; Moessner, R

• Publication status: Published
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Journal: Phys. Rev. Lett.
• Volume: 112
• Issue: 20
• Pages: 207203
• Publication date: 2013-08-20
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.207203
• EISSN: 1079-7114
• ISSN: 0031-9007
• Language: English
• Keywords: cond-mat.str-el; cond-mat.supr-con