Schedule Oct 12, 2012
The Electron Spectral Function in Spin Liquids
Evelyn Tang (MIT)

Recently, there has been growing evidence from thermodynamic and transport measurements for the existence of spin liquids in various materials. Distinct spin liquid signatures are expected to appear also in single electron properties (such as those probed by ARPES or electron tunnelling). In this work, we calculated the electron spectral function for two spin-liquid models: one with a spinon Fermi surface and another with a Dirac spinon sea. Our results demonstrate that the fractionalized nature of spin liquids leads to unique features in the spectral function different from conventional Mott or band insulators. For example, in a Dirac spin liquid, the lowest-energy excitations appear at discrete points in the Brillouin Zone. We provide an alternative set of electron spectroscopy observables for concrete spin liquid candidates.


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