arXiv subjects

Oleg A. Starykh

Publications and source records attributed to Oleg A. Starykh.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Magnetization Plateaux as a Roadmap to Quantum Spin Liquids

We investigate the spin-1/2 $J_1-J_2$ triangular-lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet in a magnetic field by combining large-scale density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) simulations with self-consistent spin-wave theory. The resulting field-coupling phase diagram reveals that quantum fluctuations stabilize coplanar order across the entire parameter range, giving rise to a characteristic sequence of magnetization plateaux. Near the quantum-spin-liquid window $0.06 \lesssim J_2/J_1 \lesssim 0.16$, which extends to magnetic field $B \sim J_1$, we identify overlapping $m = 1/3$ and $m = 1/2$ plateaux - a distinctive hallmark of the system's proximity to the low-field spin-liquid regime. The excellent quantitative agreement between DMRG and self-consistent one-loop spin-wave calculations demonstrates that semiclassical approaches can reliably capture and parameterize the plateau phases of triangular quantum antiferromagnets.

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arXiv2026

Chirality and quasi-long-range order in finite-flux Gutzwiller states for magnetized frustrated magnets

We study Gutzwiller-projected wavefunctions for triangular-lattice U(1) Dirac spin liquids in a Zeeman field, where we allow the U(1) gauge field to develop a gauge flux, resulting in (spin-split) spinon Landau levels. We find that at a given magnetization, the optimal candidate state has a finite flux chosen such that the spinon filling lies in a $|C|=1$ Landau-level gap: it gives the lowest variational energy and the smallest energy variance within our correlation-matrix reconstruction for local Heisenberg-type models. By symmetry, we argue that the finite gauge flux results in a non-zero (staggered) scalar spin chirality, as also numerically observed, and further find that the $|C|=1$ state exhibits dominant quasi-long-ranged $120^\circ$ magnetic correlations. Studying the next-to-optimal wavefunction with a $|C|=2$ Landau-level gap, we observe unusual spin-nematic correlations. Our results may provide guidance for analyzing the magnetic-field response of DSL candidate materials and offer numerical diagnostics that can connect to the underlying theory of spinons coupled to an emergent U(1) gauge field.

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arXiv2026

Ferromagnetic transition in a chiral spin chain

We study the zero-temperature properties of a spin-$1/2$ Heisenberg chain with an additional three-site chiral term of strength $g$. The model is known to be integrable and previous work using Bethe ansatz has identified a phase transition from the usual critical state for $g< g_c = 2/π$ to a chiral phase for $g>g_c$. Here we combine analytical and computational approaches to demonstrate that the transition point comprises an unusual Lifshitz transition with dynamical critical exponent $z=3$, and the chiral phase is a partially spin-polarized phase which spontaneously breaks SU(2) symmetry. We derive a strongly interacting chiral boson field theory for the critical point, and show that even its small-momentum, low-energy response is non-trivial. We also determine the universal properties of the chiral phase, and specifically show that it has a simultaneous quadratically dispersing ferromagnetic "magnon" mode coexisting with the power-law singularities and linearly dispersing excitations typical of a Luttinger liquid. Our conclusions are validated using numerics based on matrix product state methods and exact diagonalization.

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arXiv2026

Dynamics of Quantum Chiral Solitons

We introduce a nonperturbative framework for quantizing chiral solitons in interacting quantum spin chains. This approach provides a direct lattice extension of the well-established $S$-duality between the sine-Gordon and Thirring models, thereby bridging the gap between continuum dualities and their lattice counterparts. By constructing the quantum chiral-soliton operators explicitly, we show how their unconventional dynamics appear in the excitation spectrum and correlation functions across the full Brillouin zone. A key result is that the dominant soliton tunneling amplitude alternates in sign, $\operatorname{sgn}(t_{1+}) = (-1)^{2S+1}$, sharply distinguishing half-odd-integer from integer spin chains. We further identify characteristic signatures of these chiral excitations in the dynamical spin structure factor, demonstrating their visibility in inelastic neutron scattering. Our results open a route to experimentally probing nonperturbative features of dual quantum field theories in condensed-matter settings.

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arXiv2026

Emergent gauge flux in mixed QED$_3$ with flavor chemical potential: application to magnetized U(1) Dirac spin liquids

We design a lattice model of a "mixed" U(1) gauge field coupled to fermions with a flavor chemical potential and solve it with large-scale determinant quantum Monte Carlo simulations, For zero flavor chemical potential, the model realizes three-dimensional quantum electrodynamics (QED$_3$) which has been argued to describe the ground state and low-energy excitations of the Dirac spin liquid phase of quantum antiferromagnets. At finite flavor chemical potential, corresponding to a Zeeman field perturbing the Dirac spin liquid, we find a "chiral flux" phase which is characterized by the generation of a finite mean emergent gauge flux and, accordingly, the formation of relativistic Landau levels for the Dirac fermions. In this state, the U(1)$_m$ magnetic symmetry is spontaneously broken, leading to a gapless free photon mode which, due to spin-flux-attachment, is observable in the longitudinal spin structure factor. We numerically compute longitudinal and transverse spin structure factors which match our continuum and lattice mean-field theory predictions. In a different region of the phase diagram, strong fluctuations of the emergent gauge field give rise to an antiferromagnetically ordered state with gapped Dirac fermions coexisting with a deconfined gauge field. We also find an interesting intermediate phase where the chiral flux phase and the antiferromagnetic phase coexist. We argue that our results pave the way to testable predictions for magnetized Dirac spin liquids in frustrated quantum antiferromagnets.

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arXiv2026

Probing spinon interactions in the spin-1 bilinear-biquadratic chain

We study the dynamical spin and nematic correlations in the bilinear-biquadratic spin-1 chain in the critical phase hosting deconfined spinons. We demonstrate how spinon interactions can be directly probed in the presence of a magnetic field or a single-ion anisotropy. Our analytical predictions are supported by numerical matrix-product-state (MPS) simulations of the underlying microscopic model.

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arXiv2025

Spin Seebeck effect of interacting spinons

We present the theory of the longitudinal spin Seebeck effect between a Heisenberg spin-1/2 chain and a conductor. The effect consists of the generation of a spin current across the spin chain-conductor interface in response to the temperature difference between the two systems. In this setup, the current is given by the convolution of the local spin susceptibilities of the spin chain and the conductor. We find the spin current to be fully controlled, both in the magnitude and the sign, by the backscattering interaction between spinons, fractionalized spin excitations of the Heisenberg chain. In particular, it vanishes when the spinons form a non-interacting spinon gas. Our analytical results for the local spin susceptibility at the open end of the spin chain are in excellent agreement with numerical DMRG simulations.

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arXiv2022

Hydrodynamics of interacting spinons in the magnetized spin-$1/2$ chain with the uniform Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction

We use a hydrodynamic approach to investigate dynamic spin susceptibility of the antiferromagnetic spin-$1/2$ Heisenberg chain with a uniform Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction in the presence of an external magnetic field. We find that transverse (with respect to the magnetic field) spin susceptibility harbors two (respectively, three) spin excitation modes when the magnetic field is parallel (respectively, orthogonal) to the DM axis. In all cases, the marginally irrelevant backscattering interaction between the spinons creates a finite energy splitting between optical branches of excitations at $k = 0$. Additionally, for the orthogonal geometry, the two lower spin branches exhibit avoided crossing at finite momentum which is determined by the total magnetic field (the sum of the external and internal molecular fields) acting on spinons. Our approximate analytical calculations compare well with numerical results obtained using matrix-product-state (MPS) techniques. Physical consequences of our findings for the electron spin resonance experiments are discussed in detail.

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arXiv2022

Electron Spin Resonance of the Interacting Spinon Liquid

We report experimental verification of the recently predicted collective modes of spinons, stabilized by backscattering interaction, in a model quantum spin chain material. We exploit the unique geometry of uniform Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions in K$_2$CuSO$_4$Br$_2$ to measure the interaction-induced splitting between the two components of the electron spin resonance (ESR) response doublet. From that we directly determine the magnitude of the "marginally irrelevant" backscattering interaction between spinons for the first time.

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arXiv2021

Amplitude Mode in Quantum Magnets via Dimensional Crossover

We investigate the amplitude (Higgs) mode associated with longitudinal fluctuations of the order parameter at the continuous spontaneous symmetry breaking phase transition. In quantum magnets, due to the fast decay of the amplitude mode into low-energy Goldstone excitations, direct observation of this mode represents a challenging task. By focusing on a quasi-one-dimensional geometry, we circumvent the difficulty and investigate the amplitude mode in a system of weakly coupled spin chains with the help of quantum Monte Carlo simulations, stochastic analytic continuation, and a chain-mean field approach combined with a mapping to the field-theoretic sine-Gordon model. The amplitude mode is observed to emerge in the longitudinal spin susceptibility in the presence of a weak symmetry-breaking staggered field. A conventional measure of the amplitude mode in higher dimensions, the singlet bond mode, is found to appear at a lower than the amplitude mode frequency. We identify these two excitations with the second (first) breather of the sine-Gordon theory, correspondingly. In contrast to higher-dimensional systems, the amplitude and bond order fluctuations are found to carry significant spectral weight in the quasi-1D limit.

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arXiv2020

Majorana end states in an interacting quantum wire

We propose and investigate a simple one-dimensional model for a single-channel quantum wire hosting electrons that interact repulsively and are subject to a significant spin-orbit interaction. We show that an external Zeeman magnetic field, applied at the right angle to the Rashba spin-orbit axis, drives the wire into a correlated spin-density wave state with gapped spin and gapless charge excitations. By computing the ground-state degeneracies of the model with either (anti-)periodic or open boundary conditions, we conclude that the correlated spin-density state realizes a gapless symmetry-protected topological phase, as the ground state is unique in the ring geometry while it is two-fold degenerate in the wire with open boundaries. Microscopically the two-fold degeneracy is found to be protected by the conservation of the magnetization parity. Open boundaries induce localized zero-energy (midgap) states which are described, at the special Luther-Emery point of the model, by Majorana fermions. We find that spin densities at the open ends of the wire exhibit unusual long-ranged correlations despite the fact that all correlations in the bulk of the wire decay in a power-law or exponential fashion. Our study exposes the crucial importance of the long-ranged string operator needed to implement the correct commutation relations between spin densities at different points in the wire. Along the way we rederive the low-energy theory of Galilean-invariant electron systems in terms of current operators.

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arXiv2020

Dynamical signatures of quasiparticle interactions in quantum spin chains

We study the transverse dynamical susceptibility of an antiferromagnetic spin$-1/2$ chain in presence of a longitudinal Zeeman field. In the low magnetization regime in the gapless phase, we show that the marginally irrelevant backscattering interaction between the spinons creates a non-zero gap between two branches of excitations at small momentum. We further demonstrate how this gap varies upon introducing a second neighbor antiferromagnetic interaction, vanishing in the limit of a non-interacting "spinon gas". In the high magnetization regime, as the Zeeman field approaches the saturation value, we uncover the appearance of two-magnon bound states in the transverse susceptibility. This bound state feature generalizes the one arising from string states in the Bethe ansatz solution of the integrable case. Our results are based on numerically accurate, unbiased matrix-product-state techniques as well as analytic approximations.

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arXiv2020

Collective spinon spin wave in a magnetized U(1) spin liquid

We study the transverse dynamical spin susceptibility of the two dimensional U(1) spinon Fermi surface spin liquid in a small applied Zeeman field. We show that both short-range interactions, present in a generic Fermi liquid, as well as gauge fluctuations, characteristic of the U(1) spin liquid, qualitatively change the result based on the frequently assumed non-interacting spinon approximation. Short-range interaction leads to a new collective mode: a "spinon spin wave" which splits off from the two-spinon continuum at small momentum and disperses downward. Gauge fluctuations renormalize the susceptibility, providing non-zero power law weight in the region outside the spinon continuum and giving the spin wave a finite lifetime, which scales as momentum squared. We also study the effect of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya anisotropy on the zero momentum susceptibility, which is measured in electron spin resonance (ESR), and obtain a resonance linewidth linear in temperature and varying as $B^{2/3}$ with magnetic field $B$ at low temperature. Our results form the basis for a theory of inelastic neutrons scattering, ESR, and resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) studies of this quantum spin liquid state.

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arXiv2018

Spinon magnetic resonance of quantum spin liquids

We describe electron spin resonance in a quantum spin liquid with significant spin-orbit coupling. We find that the resonance directly probes spinon continuum which makes it an efficient and informative probe of exotic excitations of the spin liquid. Specifically, we consider spinon resonance of three different spinon mean-field Hamiltonians, obtained with the help of projective symmetry group analysis, which model a putative quantum spin liquid state of the triangular rare-earth antiferromagnet YbMgGaO4. The band of absorption is found to be very broad and exhibit strong van Hove singularities of single spinon spectrum as well as pronounced polarization dependence.

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arXiv2018

Ising order in a magnetized Heisenberg chain subject to a uniform Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction

We report a combined analytical and density matrix renormalized group study of the antiferromagnetic XXZ spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain subject to a uniform Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction and a transverse magnetic field. The numerically determined phase diagram of this model, which features two ordered Ising phases and a critical Luttinger liquid one with fully broken spin-rotational symmetry, agrees well with the predictions of Garate and Affleck [Phys. Rev. B 81, 144419 (2010)]. We also confirm the prevalence of the N z Néel Ising order in the regime of comparable DM and magnetic field magnitudes.

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arXiv2017

Chiral liquid phase of simple quantum magnets

We study a $T=0$ quantum phase transition between a quantum paramagnetic state and a magnetically ordered state for a spin $S=1$ XXZ Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a two-dimensional triangular lattice. The transition is induced by an easy plane single-ion anisotropy $D$. At the mean-field level, the system undergoes a direct transition at a critical $D = D_c$ between a paramagnetic state at $D > D_c$ and an ordered state with broken U(1) symmetry at $D < D_c$. We show that beyond mean field the phase diagram is very different and includes an intermediate, partially ordered chiral liquid phase. Specifically, we find that inside the paramagnetic phase the Ising ($J_z$) component of the Heisenberg exchange binds magnons into a two-particle bound state with zero total momentum and spin. This bound state condenses at $D > D_c$, before single-particle excitations become unstable, and gives rise to a chiral liquid phase, which spontaneously breaks spatial inversion symmetry, but leaves the spin-rotational U(1) and time-reversal symmetries intact. This chiral liquid phase is characterized by a finite vector chirality without long range dipolar magnetic order. In our analytical treatment, the chiral phase appears for arbitrarily small $J_z$ because the magnon-magnon attraction becomes singular near the single-magnon condensation transition. This phase exists in a finite range of $D$ and transforms into the magnetically ordered state at some $D<D_c$. We corroborate our analytic treatment with numerical density matrix renormalization group calculations.

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arXiv2017

Phase diagram of weakly coupled Heisenberg spin chains subject to a uniform Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction

Motivated by recent experiments on spin chain materials K$_2$CuSO$_4$Cl$_2$ and K$_2$CuSO$_4$Br$_2$, we theoretically investigate the problem of weakly coupled spin chains (chain exchange $J$, interchain $J'$) subject to a $\textit{staggered between chains}$, but $\textit{uniform}$ within a given chain, Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction of magnitude $D$. In the experimentally relevant limit $J' \ll D \ll J$ of strong DM interaction the spins on the neighboring chains are forced to rotate in opposite directions, effectively resulting in a cancelation of the interchain interaction between components of spins in the plane normal to the vector ${\pmb D}$. This has the effect of promoting two-dimensional collinear spin density wave (SDW) state, which preserves U(1) symmetry of rotations about the $\pmb D$-axis. We also investigate response of this interesting system to an external magnetic field ${\pmb h}$ and obtain the $h-D$ phase diagrams for the two important configurations, ${\pmb h} \parallel {\pmb D}$ and ${\pmb h} \perp {\pmb D}$.

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arXiv2016

Emergent quasi-one-dimensionality in a kagomé magnet: A simple route to complexity

We study the ground state phase diagram of the quantum spin-$1/2$ Heisenberg model on the kagomé lattice with first- ($J_1 < 0$), second- ($J_2 < 0$), and third-neighbor interactions ($J_d > 0$) by means of analytical low-energy field theory and numerical density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) studies. The results offer a consistent picture of the $J_d$-dominant regime in terms of three sets of spin chains weakly coupled by the ferromagnetic inter-chain interactions $J_{1,2}$. When either $J_1$ or $J_2$ is dominant, the model is found to support one of two cuboctohedral phases, cuboc1 and cuboc2. These cuboc states host non-coplanar long-ranged magnetic order and possess finite scalar spin chirality. However, in the compensated regime $J_1 \simeq J_2$, a valence bond crystal phase emerges between the two cuboc phases. We find excellent agreement between an analytical theory based on coupled spin chains and unbiased DMRG calculations, including at a very detailed level of comparison of the structure of the valence bond crystal state. To our knowledge, this is the first such comprehensive understanding of a highly frustrated two-dimensional (2d) quantum antiferromagnet. We find no evidence of either the one-dimensional (1d) gapless spin liquid or the chiral spin liquids, which were previously suggested by parton mean field theories.

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