Plaquette order in the SU(6) Heisenberg model on the honeycomb lattice

We revisit the SU(6) Heisenberg model on the honeycomb lattice, which has been predicted to be a chiral spin liquid by mean-field theory [G. Szirmai et al., Phys. Rev. A 84, 011611(R) (2011)]. Using exact diagonalizations of finite clusters, infinite projected entangled pair state simulations, and variational Monte Carlo simulations based on Gutzwiller projected wave functions, we provide strong evidence that the model with one particle per site and nearest-neighbor exchange actually develops plaquette order. This is further confirmed by the investigation of the model with a ring-exchange term, which shows that there is a transition between the plaquette state and the chiral state at a finite value of the ring-exchange term.