Detecting symmetry fractionalization in gapped quantum spin liquids by magnetic impurities
We study the Kondo effect of spin-$1/2$ magnetic impurities in gapped ${Z}_{2}$ spin liquids on two-dimensional lattices. We find that if the impurity is placed at a high-symmetry location, a nontrivial spinon fractionalization class of the impurity site symmetry group will necessarily lead to a non-Kramers doublet in the Kondo screening regime, protected by associated crystalline symmetries. This is in sharp contrast to a featureless screening phase in the usual Kondo effect. We demonstrate this symmetry-protected topological degeneracy by an exactly solvable model and by the large-$N$ theory. Based on this effect, we discuss how thermodynamic measurements in the limit of dilute magnetic impurities can be used to detect symmetry fractionalization in gapped ${Z}_{2}$ spin liquids.
Authors
- Shuangyuan Lu
- Yuan-Ming Lu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6275-739X)
Institutions
- The Ohio State University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical review. B./Physical review. B
- Published
- 2024-09-03
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.110.l100401
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Advanced Condensed Matter Physics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.31
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Ohio State University