Projected-Wave-Function Study of the Spin-<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mn>1</mml:mn><mml:mo>/</mml:mo><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:math>Heisenberg Model on the Kagomé Lattice

Abstract

We perform a Gutzwiller projected-wave-function study for the spin-1/2 Heisenberg model on the Kagomé lattice to compare energies of several spin-liquid states. The result indicates that a U(1)-Dirac spin-liquid state has the lowest energy. Furthermore, even without variational parameters, the energy turns out to be very close to that found by exact diagonalization. We show that such a U(1)-Dirac state represents a quantum phase whose low-energy physics is governed by four flavors of two-component Dirac fermions coupled to a U(1) gauge field. These results are discussed in the context of recent experiments on ZnCu(3)(OH)(6)Cl(2).