Quantum and classical behavior of spin-$S$ Kitaev models in an anisotropic limit

Abstract

We study low-energy properties of spin-$S$ Kitaev models in an anisotropic limit. The effective form of a local conserved quantity is derived in the low-energy subspace. We find this is the same as that of $S=1/2$ case for the half-integer spins but shows a different form for the integer spins. Applying the perturbation theory to the anisotropic Kitaev model, we obtain the effective Hamiltonian. In the integer spin case, the effective model is equivalent to a free spin model under an uniform magnetic field, where quantum fluctuations are quenched. On the other hand, in the half-integer case, the system is described by the toric code Hamiltonian, where quantum fluctuations play a crucial role in the ground state. The boundary effect in the anisotropic Kitaev system is also discussed.