Exact ground state on the 3D analogue of the Shastry-Sutherland model

Abstract

Exact results in frustrated quantum many-body systems are rare, especially in dimensions higher than one. The Shastry-Sutherland (SS) model stands out as a rare example of a two-dimensional spin system with an exactly solvable dimer singlet ground state. In this work, we introduce a three-dimensional analogue of the SS lattice, constructed by deforming the pyrochlore lattice to preserve the local SS geometry. Despite the dimensional increase and altered topology, the ground-state phase diagrams of classical Ising and Heisenberg spins, remain analytically tractable and closely follow their 2D counterparts, including the existence of a 1/3 magnetization plateau and umbrella states. Most notably, for quantum spins S = 1/2, the dimer singlet state survives as an exact ground state over a finite region of the phase diagram. We argue, using exact diagonalization, that the singlet phase is stabilized beyond its 2D counterpart, suggesting enhanced robustness in three dimensions. These results offer a rare, controlled platform to explore the impact of dimensionality on quantum frustration, exact solvability, and potential spin liquid behavior in 3D, with relevance to emergent topological and magnetic phases.