Monopole flux state on the pyrochlore lattice

F. J. Burnell, Shoibal Chakravarty, S. L. Sondhi
2009 Physical Review B  
The ground state of a spin 1/2 nearest neighbor quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the pyrochlore lattice is investigated using a large N SU(N) fermionic mean field theory. We find several mean field states, of which the state of lowest energy upon Gutzwiller projection, is a parity and time reversal breaking chiral phase with a unit monopole flux exiting each tetrahedron. This "monopole flux" state has a Fermi surface consisting of 4 lines intersecting at a point. At mean field the
more » ... y excitations about the Fermi surface are gapless spinons. An analysis using the projective symmetry group of this state suggests that the state is stable to small fluctuations which neither induce a gap, nor alter the unusual Fermi surface.
doi:10.1103/physrevb.79.144432 fatcat:msr2gulcqzbzvcvgvldcjmd55u