Large-U limit of a Hubbard model in a magnetic field: chiral spin interactions and paramagnetism

We consider the large-$U$ limit of the one-band Hubbard model at half-filling on a non-bipartite two-dimensional lattice. An external magnetic field can induce a three-spin chiral interaction at order $1 / U^2 ~$. We discuss situations in which, at low temperatures, the chiral term may have a larger effect than the Pauli coupling of electron spins to a magnetic field. We present a model which explicitly demonstrates this. The ground state is a singlet with a gap; hence the spin susceptibility is zero while the chiral susceptibility is finite and paramagnetic.