Quantum decay of magnons in the unfrustrated honeycomb Heisenberg model

Abstract

We investigate the physical properties of elementary magnon excitations of the ordered antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on the honeycomb lattice using quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations, series expansions (SE), and continuous similarity transformations (CST). The stochastic analytic continuation method is used to determine the dynamic structure factor from correlation functions in imaginary time obtained by QMC. In contrast to the "roton minimum" of the square lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet, we find that magnons on the honeycomb lattice completely decay in the corner of the Brillouin zone ($K$-point); the entire weight is shifted into the continuum. These findings are fully supported by SE and CST in momentum space. The extrapolated one-magnon dispersion obtained from SE about the Ising limit quantitatively agrees with the extracted QMC excitation energies except around the $K$-point, where large uncertainties in the extrapolation indicate the magnon decay. This quantum decay is further confirmed and understood by the CST, which yields a divergent flow when enforcing a magnon quasi-particle picture. The divergence originates from strong attractive magnon-magnon interactions leading to a bound state and thereby to a three-magnon continuum overlapping with the one-magnon state. This has the magnon quasi-particle picture break down at high energies on the honeycomb lattice.