Dynamical Signature of Symmetry Fractionalization in Frustrated Magnets

Abstract

© 2018 American Physical Society. The nontriviality of quantum spin liquids (QSLs) typically manifests in the nonlocal observables that signify their existence; however, this fact actually casts a shadow on detecting QSLs with experimentally accessible probes. Here, we provide a solution by unbiasedly demonstrating a dynamical signature of anyonic excitations and symmetry fractionalization in QSLs. Employing large-scale quantum Monte Carlo simulation and stochastic analytic continuation, we investigate the extended XXZ model on the kagome lattice, and find out that, across the phase transitions from Z2 QSLs to different symmetry breaking phases, spin spectral functions can reveal the presence and condensation of emergent anyonic spinon and vison excitations, in particular, the translational symmetry fractionalization of the latter, which can be served as the dynamical signature of the seemingly ephemeral QSLs in spectroscopic techniques such as inelastic neutron or resonance (inelastic) x-ray scatterings.