Broken discrete symmetries in a frustrated honeycomb antiferromagnet

We study the magnetic phase diagram of the J1-J2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a honeycomb lattice at the strongly frustrated point J2/J1=1/2 using large-scale Monte Carlo simulations. At low temperatures we find three different field regimes, each characterized by different broken discrete symmetri...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Rosales, Héctor Diego, Cabra, Daniel Carlos, Lamas, Carlos Alberto, Pujol, P., Zhitomirsky, M. E.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2013
País:Argentina
Institución:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/23499
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/23499
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:HONEYCOMB LATTICE
FRUSTRATED MAGNETISM
PHASE TRANSITIONS
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.3
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1
Descripción
Sumario:We study the magnetic phase diagram of the J1-J2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a honeycomb lattice at the strongly frustrated point J2/J1=1/2 using large-scale Monte Carlo simulations. At low temperatures we find three different field regimes, each characterized by different broken discrete symmetries. In low magnetic fields up to hc1/J1≈2.9 the Z3 rotational lattice symmetry is spontaneously broken while a 1/2-magnetization plateau is stabilized around hc2/J1=4. The collinear plateau state and the coplanar state in higher fields break the Z 4 translational symmetry and correspond to triple-q magnetic structures. The intermediate phase hc1<h<hc2 has an interesting symmetry structure, breaking simultaneously the Z3 and Z4 symmetries. At much lower temperatures the spatial broken discrete symmetries coexist with the quasi-long-range order of the transverse spin components.