Hard-core slave-boson description of generalized flux phases

Through a hard-core slave-boson mean-field approach to the t-J model, which describes the dynamics of holes moving in a quantum antiferromagnet, we investigate its generalized flux phases. We first study the motion of an electron gas for arbitrary fillings and fields and establish the linear proportionality between the filling factor and the optimal flux with high accuracy. Using this result, we show that if the hard-core nature of the hole bosons is taken into account, then the slave-boson mean-field approximation for the t-J Hamiltonian allows for a solution where both the spinons and the holons experience an average flux of one flux quantum per particle. This enables them to achieve the lowest possible energy within the manifold of spatially-uniform flux states. In the case of the continuum model, this is possible only for certain fractional fillings and we suggest that the system may react to this frustration effect by phase separation. (author). 26 refs