  Quantum spin liquids are materials that feature quantum entangled spin
correlations and avoid magnetic long-range order at T = 0 K. Particularly
interesting are two-dimensional honeycomb spin lattices where a plethora of
exotic quantum spin liquids have been predicted. Here, we experimentally study
an effective S=1/2 Heisenberg honeycomb lattice with competing nearest and
next-nearest neighbor interactions. We demonstrate that YbBr$_3$ avoids order
down to at least T=100 mK and features a dynamic spin-spin correlation function
with broad continuum scattering typical of quantum spin liquids near a quantum
critical point. The continuum in the spin spectrum is consistent with plaquette
type fluctuations predicted by theory. Our study is the experimental
demonstration that strong quantum fluctuations can exist on the honeycomb
lattice even in the absence of Kitaev-type interactions, and opens a new
perspective on quantum spin liquids.
