Quantum spin liquid from electron-phonon coupling

Abstract

A quantum spin liquid (QSL) is an exotic insulating phase with emergent gauge fields and fractionalized excitations. However, the unambiguous demonstration of the existence of a QSL in a "non-engineered" microscopic model (or in any material) remains challenging. Here, using numerically-exact sign-problem-free quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we show that a QSL arises in a non-engineered electron-phonon model. Specifically, we investigate the ground-state phase diagram of the bond Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model on a 2D triangular lattice at half filling (one electron per site) which we show includes a QSL phase which is fully gapped, exhibits no symmetry-breaking order, and supports deconfined fractionalized holon excitations. This suggests new routes for finding QSLs in realistic materials and high-$T_c$ superconductivity by lightly doping them.