Dirac and Chiral Quantum Spin Liquids on the Honeycomb Lattice in a Magnetic Field

Abstract

Motivated by recent experimental observations in α-RuCl3, we study the K-Γ model on the honeycomb lattice in an external magnetic field. By a slave-particle representation and variational Monte Carlo calculations, we reproduce the phase transition from zigzag magnetic order to a field-induced disordered phase. The nature of this state depends crucially on the field orientation. For particular field directions in the honeycomb plane, we find a gapless Dirac spin liquid, in agreement with recent experiments on α-RuCl3. For a range of out-of-plane fields, we predict the existence of a Kalmeyer-Laughlin-type chiral spin liquid, which would show an integer-quantized thermal Hall effect.