  The Kitaev model, characterized by bond-dependent Ising spin interactions
among spin-orbit entangled dipole moments in Mott insulators, offered a new
approach to quantum spin liquids. Motivated by another type of bond-dependent
interaction among quadrupole moments in $5d^2$ Mott insulators, we provide a
microscopic route to uncover the Kitaev multipolar liquid, featuring
fractionalized excitations out of non-Kramers doublets carrying multipole
moments. The key ingredient is the magnetic field that allows for
bond-anisotropic quadrupole-octupole interactions via mixing with the excited
triplet states. The conditions to realize signatures of this phase in real
materials are also discussed.
