Unification of bosonic and fermionic theories of spin liquids on the kagome lattice

Understand

Recent numerical studies have provided strong evidence for a gapped $Z_2$ quantum spin liquid in the kagome lattice spin-1/2 Heisenberg model.

• A special feature of spin liquids is that symmetries can be fractionalized, and different patterns of symmetry fractionalization imply distinct phases.
• The symmetry fractionalization pattern for the kagome spin liquid remains to be determined.
• A popular approach to studying spin liquids is to decompose the physical spin into partons obeying either bose (Schwinger bosons) or fermi (Abrikosov fermions) statstics, which are then treated within the mean-field theory.