A Bosonic Mean-Field Theory for Frustrated Heisenberg Antiferromagnets in Two Dimensions

Abstract

We use a recently developed bosonic mean-field theory (MFT) to study the ordered ground states of frustrated Heisenberg antiferromagnets (FHAFM) in two dimensions. We emphasize the role of condensates in satisfying the MF variational equations and their relation to spin correlation functions at low temperatures. Our results are similar to those obtained using Schwinger boson MFT. However, we emphasize here that our MFT has three bosons at each site and that it is not necessary to rotate the quantization axes on appropriate sub-lattices to align all the spins ferromagnetically. This MFT is also closely related to a new spin-wave theory which enables us to obtain the spin-wave spectrum easily (without any rotation of axes) for an entire class of three-dimensionally ordered states. For the FHAFM on a triangular lattice, we use this theory to compute the spin-wave spectrum for all values of $~J_2 ~/J_1 ~$ and demonstrate the phenomenon of order from disorder. (1 figure not included. Hard copy available on request.)