Classification and detection of symmetry fractionalization in chiral spin liquids

Abstract

In this work we study the crystal symmetry fractionalization in chiral spin liquids with the chiral-semion topological order. We show that if such a chiral spin liquid is realized in a two-dimensional lattice model with odd number of spin-$\frac12$ per unit cell and the state preserves spin rotation symmetry and translation symmetries, the semion excitation must carry both half-integer spin and fractional crystal quantum numbers. As a result, only a unique symmetry enriched topological phase can be realized in chiral spin liquids in a spin-$\frac12$ kagome lattice model. These fractional symmetry quantum numbers are confirmed numerically using ground state wave functions obtained with the density matrix renormalization group method.

11 pages, 4 figures, references added