Ordered phases of the anisotropic kagome-lattice antiferromagnet in a magnetic field

The antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on an anisotropic kagome lattice may be a good minimal model for real magnetic systems as well as a limit from which the isotropic case can be better understood. We therefore study the nearest-neighbor Heisenberg antiferromagnet on an anisotropic kagome lattice in a magnetic field. Such a system should be well described by weakly interacting spin chains, and we motivate a general form for the interaction by symmetry considerations and by perturbatively projecting out the interchain spins. In the spin-1∕2 case, we find that the system exhibits a quantum phase transition from a ferrimagnetic ordered state to an XY ordered state as the field is increased. Finally, we discuss the appearance of magnetization plateaux in the ferrimagnetic phase.