Efficient matrix-product-state preparation of highly entangled trial states: Weak Mott insulators on the triangular lattice revisited

Using tensor network states to unravel the physics of quantum spin liquids in minimal, yet generic microscopic spin or electronic models remains notoriously challenging. A prominent open question concerns the nature of the insulating ground state of two-dimensional half-filled Hubbard-type models on the triangular lattice in the vicinity of the Mott metal-insulator transition, a regime which can be approximated microscopically by a spin-1/2 Heisenberg model supplemented with additional "ring-exchange" interactions. Using a novel and efficient state preparation technique whereby we initialize full density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) calculations with highly entangled Gutzwiller-projected Fermi surface trial wave functions, we show -- contrary to previous works -- that the simplest triangular lattice $J$-$K$ spin model with four-site ring exchange likely does not harbor a fully gapless U(1) spinon Fermi surface (spin Bose metal) phase on four- and six-leg wide ladders. Our methodology paves the way to fully resolve with DMRG other controversial problems in the fields of frustrated quantum magnetism and strongly correlated electrons.