Nontrivial quantized Berry phases for itinerant spin liquids

Abstract

Quantized Berry phases as local order parameters in t-J models are studied. A texture pattern of the local order parameters is topologically stable due to the quantization of non-Abelian Berry phases defined by low-energy states below a spin gap, which exists in the large J/t case with a few electrons. We have confirmed that itinerant singlets in the wide class of t-J models carry the nontrivial Berry phase pi. In the large J/t case for the one-dimensional t-J model, Berry phases are uniformly pi when the number of electrons is N =4n +2, ($n=0,1,2,...$).