Resonating Valence Bond States with Trimer Motifs

The trimer resonating valence bond (tRVB) state consisting of an equal-weight superposition of trimer coverings on a square lattice is proposed. A model Hamiltonian of the Rokhsar-Kivelson type for which the tRVB becomes the exact ground state is written. The state is shown to have $9^g$ topological degeneracy on genus g surface and support $Z_3$ vortex excitations. Correlation functions show exponential behavior with a very short correlation length consistent with the gapped spectrum. The classical problem of the degeneracy of trimer configurations is investigated by the transfer matrix method.