Comment on "Gapless spin liquid ground state of the spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ $J_1$-$J_2$ Heisenberg model on square lattices"

Abstract

Liu et al. [Phys.Rev.B 98, 241109 (2018)] used Monte Carlo sampling of the physical degrees of freedom of a Projected Entangled Pair State (PEPS) type wave function for the $S=1/2$ frustrated $J_1$-$J_2$ Heisenberg model on the square lattice and found a non-magnetic state argued to be a gapless spin liquid when the coupling ratio $g=J_2/J_1$ is in the range $g \in [0.42,0.6]$. Here we show that their definition of the order parameter for another candidate ground state within this coupling window---a spontaneously dimerized state---is problematic. The order parameter as defined will not detect dimer order when lattice symmeties are broken due to open boundaries or asymmetries originating from the calculation itself. Thus, a dimerized phase for some range of $g$ cannot be excluded (and is likely based on several other recent works).