Thermodynamics of the quantum easy-plane antiferromagnet on the triangular lattice

Abstract

The classical XXZ triangular-lattice antiferromagnet (TAF) shows both an Ising and a BKT transition, related to the chirality and the in-plane spin components, respectively. In this paper the quantum effects on the thermodynamic quantities are evaluated by means of the pure-quantum self-consistent harmonic approximation (PQSCHA), that allows one to deal with any spin value through classical MC simulations. We report the internal energy, the specific heat, and the in-plane correlation length of the quantum XX0 TAF, for S=1/2, 1, 5/2. The quantum transition temperatures turn out to be smaller the smaller the spin, and agree with the few available theoretical and numerical estimates.