Dresden 2026 – scientific programme

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TT: Fachverband Tiefe Temperaturen

TT 19: Focus Session: New Routes to Localization and Quantum Non-Ergodicity II (joint session TT/DY)

TT 19.5: Talk

Monday, March 9, 2026, 16:00–16:15, CHE/0091

Cooling dynamics of a disorder-free localized Kitaev model — •Arkadeep Mitra, Francesco Piazza, and Markus Heyl — Theoretical Physics III, Center for Electronic Correlations and Magnetism, Institute of Physics, University of Augsburg, 86135 Augsburg, Germany

The Kitaev spin-1/2 model on a 2D honeycomb lattice has a Z₂ gauge symmetry that translates to an effective picture of free Majorana fermions on a background static charge field. This yields a ground state that realizes a quantum spin liquid (QSL) with fractional excitations. At high temperatures, however, it has recently been observed to enter a disorder-free localized phase, so that any experimental cooling of a Kitaev material has to cross this localized and associated phase transition. Motivated from this, we study theoretically the cooling dynamics upon coupling the Kitaev model to phonons with a symmetry breaking interaction. We envisage that signatures obtained from this dynamics could act as probes for QSL.

Keywords: spin liquids; localization; disorder-free; open systems; non-equilibrium dynamics