Semi-Dirac spin liquids and frustrated quantum magnetism on the trellis lattice

Abstract: Geometrical frustration in quantum magnets provides a fertile setting for unconventional phases of matter, including quantum spin liquids (QSLs). The trellis lattice, with its complex site arrangements and edge-sharing triangular motifs, presents a promising platform for such physics. In this work, we undertake a comprehensive classification of all fully symmetric QSLs on the trellis lattice using the projective symmetry group approach within the Abrikosov fermion representation. We find 7 U(1) and 25 $\mathbb{Z}{2}$ short-ranged $\textit{Ans\"atze}$, uncovering both gapped and Dirac QSLs as well as a novel semi-Dirac spin liquid, in which the spinon dispersion is linear along one momentum direction but quadratic along the orthogonal one. We demonstrate that such dispersions can occur only at high-symmetry points in the Brillouin zone with $C{2v}$ little groups and analyze their characteristic correlation signatures. Moreover, by optimizing over all mean-field states, we map out a phase diagram -- featuring six distinct phases -- of the nearest-neighbor Heisenberg Hamiltonian on the trellis lattice. Going beyond mean field, we also assess equal-time and dynamical spin structure factors of these phases using density-matrix renormalization group and Keldysh pseudofermion functional renormalization group calculations. Finally, we identify four cuprate and vanadate compounds as promising experimental realizations and provide spectroscopic predictions, based on first-principles Hamiltonians, as a guide for future neutron-scattering studies on these materials.