Realization of the exactly solvable Kitaev honeycomb lattice model in a spin-rotation-invariant system

Abstract

The exactly solvable Kitaev honeycomb lattice model is realized as the low-energy effect Hamiltonian of a spin-1/2 model with spin rotation and time-reversal symmetry. The mapping to low-energy effective Hamiltonian is exact without truncation errors in traditional perturbation series expansions. This model consists of a honeycomb lattice of clusters of four spin-1/2 moments and contains short-range interactions up to six-spin (or eight-spin) terms. The spin in the Kitaev model is represented not as these spin-1/2 moments but as pseudospin of the two-dimensional spin-singlet sector of the four antiferromagnetically coupled spin-1/2 moments within each cluster. Spin correlations in the Kitaev model are mapped to dimer correlations or spin-chirality correlations in this model. This exact construction is quite general and can be used to make other interesting spin-1/2 models from spin-rotation invariant Hamiltonians. We discuss two possible routes to generate the high-order spin interactions from more natural couplings, which involves perturbative expansions thus breaks the exact mapping, although in a controlled manner.