Exact staggered dimer ground state and its stability in a two-dimensional magnet

Abstract

Finding an exact solution for a realistic interacting quantum many-body problem is often challenging. There are only a few problems where an exact solution can be found, usually in a narrow parameter space. Here, we propose a spin-$1/2$ Heisenberg model on a square lattice with spatial anisotropy and bond depletion for the nearest-neighbor antiferromagnetic interactions but not for the next-nearest-neighbor interactions. This model has an \emph{exact} and \emph{unique} dimer ground state at $J_2/J_1=1/2$; a dimer state is a product state of spin-singlets on dimers (here, staggered nearest-neighbor bonds). We examine this model by employing the bond-operator mean-field theory and exact diagonalization. These analytical and numerical methods precisely affirm the correctness of the dimer ground state at the exact point ($J_2/J_1=1/2$). As one moves away from the exact point, the dimer order melts and vanishes when the spin gap becomes zero. The mean-field theory with harmonic approximation indicates that the dimer order persists for $-0.35\lesssim J_2/J_1\lesssim 1.35$. However, in non-harmonic approximation, the upper critical point lowers by $0.28$ to $1.07$, but the lower critical point remains intact. The exact diagonalization results suggest that the latter approximation fares better. The model reveals Néel order below the lower critical point and stripe magnetic order above the upper critical point. It has a topologically equivalent model on a honeycomb lattice where the nearest-neighbor interactions are still spatial anisotropic, but the bond depletion shifts into the isotropic next-neighbor interactions. Moreover, these models can also be generalized in the three dimensions.