Thermal Hall conductivity of a valence bond solid phase in the square lattice $J_1$-$J_2$ antiferromagnet Heisenberg model with a Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction

Abstract

We calculate the thermal Hall conductivity $κ_{xy}$ for the columnar valence-bond solid phase of a two-dimensional frustrated antiferromagnet. In particular, we consider the square lattice spin-$1/2$ $J_1$-$J_2$ antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model with an additional Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction between the spins and in the presence of an external magnetic field. We concentrate on the intermediate parameter region of the $J_1$-$J_2$ model, where a quantum paramagnetic phase is stable, and consider a Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya vector pattern associated with the couplings between the spins in the CuO$_2$ planes of the YBCO compound. We describe the columnar valence-bond solid phase within the bond-operator formalism, which allows us to map the Heisenberg model into an effective interacting boson model written in terms of triplet operators. The effective boson model is studied within the harmonic approximation and the triplon excitation bands of the columnar valence-bond solid phase is determined. We then calculate the Berry curvature and the Chern numbers of the triplon excitation bands and, finally, determine the thermal Hall conductivity due to triplons as a function of the temperature. We find that the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction yields a finite Berry curvature for the triplon bands, but the corresponding Chern numbers vanish. Although the triplon excitations are topologically trivial, the thermal Hall conductivity of the columnar valence-bond solid phase in the square lattice antiferromagnet is finite at low temperatures. We comment on the relations of our results with a {\sl no-go} condition for a thermal Hall effect previously derived for ordered magnets.