Abstract
Motivated by the absence of a cooperative Jahn-Teller effect in and two layered oxides with triangular planes, we study the SU(4) symmetric spin-orbital model on the triangular lattice. Upon reducing the next-nearest-neighbor coupling, we show that the system undergoes a quantum phase transition to a liquid phase. A variational approach to this liquid phase shows that simple types of long-range correlations are suppressed, suggesting that it is stable against lattice distortions.
- Received 7 May 2003
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.68.012408
©2003 American Physical Society