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50 years of quantum spin liquids

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In 1973, Philip Anderson published a paper introducing the resonating valence bond state, which can be recognized in retrospect as a topologically ordered phase of matter — one that cannot be classified in the conventional way according to its patterns of spontaneously broken symmetry. Steven Kivelson and Shivaji Sondhi reflect on the impact of this paper over the past 50 years.

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Fig. 1: Schematic representation of spins on a triangular lattice.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Steven Kivelson

  2. Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Steven Kivelson & Shivaji Sondhi

Authors
  1. Steven Kivelson
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  2. Shivaji Sondhi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Steven Kivelson.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Kivelson, S., Sondhi, S. 50 years of quantum spin liquids. Nat Rev Phys 5, 368–369 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-023-00596-x

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