Spin liquids on an anisotropic kagome lattice

Much recent theoretical and experimental effort has been devoted to the search for quantum spin liquids, which arise in the presence of strong frustration of magnetic interactions. Motivated by recent experiments on the vanadium oxyfluoride material DQVOF, we examine possible spin liquid phases on an anisotropic kagome lattice of $S=1/2$ spins, in which the $C_6$ symmetry is broken to $C_3$. Using the projective symmetry group analysis, we determine the possible phases for both bosonic and fermionic $Z_2$ spin liquids on this lattice. Using VMC, we study the Heisenberg model on this lattice, and show that a $Z_2$ spin liquid emerges as the ground state in the presence of this anisotropy.