Low-energy properties of two-dimensional quantum triangular antiferromagnets: Non-perturbative renormalization group approach

Abstract

We explore low temperature properties of quantum triangular Heisenberg antiferromagnets in two dimension in the vicinity of the quantum phase transition at zero temperature. Using the effective field theory described by the $SO(3)\times SO(2)/SO(2)$ matrix Ginzburg-Landau-Wilson model and the non-perturbative renormalization group method, we clarify how quantum and thermal fluctuations affect long-wavelength behaviors in the parameter region where the systems exhibit a fluctuation-driven first order transition to a long-range ordered state. We show that at finite temperatures the crossover from a quantum $\phi^6$ theory to a renormalized two-dimensional classical nonlinear sigma model region appears, and in this crossover region, massless fluctuation modes with linear dispersion a la spin waves govern low-energy physics. Our results are in good agreement with the recent experimental observations for the two-dimensional triangular Heisenberg spin system, NiGa$_2$S$_4$.