Incipient and well-developed entropy plateaus in spin-S Kitaev models

Abstract

We present results on entropy and heat-capacity of the spin-S honeycomb-lattice Kitaev models using high-temperature series expansions and thermal pure quantum (TPQ) state methods. We study models with anisotropic couplings $J_z=1\ge J_x=J_y$ for spin values 1/2, 1, 3/2, and 2. We show that for $S>1/2$, any anisotropy leads to well developed plateaus in the entropy function at an entropy value of $\frac{1}{2}\ln{2}$, independent of $S$. However, in the absence of anisotropy, there is an incipient entropy plateau at $S_{max}/2$, where $S_{max}$ is the infinite temperature entropy of the system. We discuss possible underlying microscopic reasons for the origin and implications of these entropy plateaus.