Instability of isolated triplet excitations on the Shastry-Sutherland lattice (SSL)

Configurations of singlets and triplets on the SSL have been proposed in the literature as variational ground states of the Shastry-Sutherland model at fixed magnetization M. We prove, that isolated triplet excitations on the SSL are unstable if the coupling alpha falls below a critical value alpha_c=2.0 (approx.). The instability should be visible in the compound SrCu_2(BO_3)_2 where a coupling alpha^*=1.48 is realized.