Spin-S Kitaev-Heisenberg model on the honeycomb lattice: A high-order treatment via the many-body coupled cluster method

Abstract

We study the spin-S Kitaev-Heisenberg model on the honeycomb lattice for S=1/2, 1, and 3/2, by using the coupled cluster method (CCM) of microscopic quantum many-body theory. This system is one of the earliest extensions of the Kitaev model and is believed to contain two extended spin liquid phases for any value of the spin quantum number S. We show that the CCM delivers accurate estimates for the phase boundaries of these spin liquid phases, as well as other transition points in the phase diagram. Moreover, we find evidence of two unexpected narrow phases for S=1/2, one sandwiched between the zigzag and ferromagnetic phases and the other between the Néel and the stripy phases. The results establish the CCM as a versatile numerical technique that can capture the strong quantum-mechanical fluctuations that are inherently present in generalized Kitaev models with competing bond-dependent anisotropies.