Resonating valence bond wave function for the two dimensional fractional spin liquid

Abstract

The unconventional low-lying spin excitations, recently observed in neutron scattering experiments on ${\rm Cs_2 Cu Cl_4}$, are explained with a spin liquid wave function. The dispersion relation as well as the wave vector of the incommensurate spin correlations are well reproduced within a projected BCS wave function with gapless and fractionalized spin-1/2 excitations around the nodes of the BCS gap function. The proposed wave function is shown to be very accurate for one-dimensional spin-1/2 systems, and remains similarly accurate in the two-dimensional model corresponding to ${\rm Cs_2 Cu Cl_4}$, thus representing a good ansatz for describing spin fractionalization in two dimensions.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. To appear in Phys. Rev. Let