Abstract The pursuit of the quantum spin liquid (QSL) predicted by the Kitaev honeycomb model remains a central yet challenging goal in quantum magnetism. Realistic candidate materials inevitably host non-Kitaev interactions that often lead to antiferromagnetic (AFM) order at low temperature. While magnetic fields can suppress such AFM order and may stabilize a QSL phase, conclusive evidence for a field-induced Kitaev QSL has remained elusive despite a decade of research. Here, we establish an effective K - J -Γ- ^{ } Γ ′ model with a dominant AFM Kitaev interaction for Na 2 Co 2 TeO 6, which quantitatively explains its key experimental measurements. Using high-precision tensor-network calculations, we reveal a QSL phase under intermediate 111 magnetic fields, which is possibly gapless, and find it can be adiabatically connected to the intensively studied intermediate-field QSL in the pure AFM Kitaev model. This correspondence confirms that the Kitaev model as the origin of the intermediate-field QSL in cobalt-based magnet Na 2 Co 2 TeO 6, thus offering a concrete platform for exploring Kitaev-derived QSL in realistic materials.
Li et al. (Fri,) studied this question.