Symmetry analysis of bond-alternating Kitaev spin chains and ladders

Abstract

In this work, we analyze the nonsymmorphic symmetry group structures for a variety of quasione-dimensional generalized Kitaev spin models with bond alternations, including Kitaev-Gamma chain, Kitaev-Heisenberg-Gamma chain, beyond nearest neighbor interactions, and two-leg spin ladders. The symmetry analysis is applied to determine the symmetry breaking patterns of several magnetically ordered phases in the bond-alternating Kitaev-Gamma spin chains, as well as the dimerization order parameters for spontaneous dimerizations. Our work is useful in understanding the magnetic phases in related models and may provide guidance for the symmetry classifications of mean field solutions in further investigations.