Competing Paramagnetic Phases in the Maple-Leaf Heisenberg Antiferromagnet

Abstract: We establish a remarkably rich ground state phase diagram in the maple-leaf lattice spin-$1/2$ Heisenberg antiferromagnet as a function of the three symmetry-inequivalent nearest-neighbor bonds using exact diagonalization and tower-of-states analysis on clusters up to $N=36$ sites. Besides a hexagonal plaquette state, a star-shaped valence bond solid state is discovered in close vicinity to the (canted) $120^\circ$ magnetic phase, strongly reminiscent of a de-confined critical point or Dirac spin liquid scenario on the triangular lattice antiferromagnets. Moreover, an exact dimer product-state is observed next to a collinear Néel-state, similar to the Shastry-Sutherland model. All identified phases compete in a parameter regime close to the isotropic point, providing a promising region for spin liquids to emerge. By analyzing Gutzwiller-projected wave-functions we identify a sliver of parameter regime where a gapped $\mathbb{Z}_{2}$ spin liquid Ansatz is in astonishing agreement with the exact $N=36$ ground state. This rich competition of paramagnetic phases demonstrates that the maple-leaf antiferromagnet is a promising platform for exotic states of matter and quantum critical phenomena.