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Title: Fractional matter coupled to the emergent gauge field in a quantum spin ice
Electronic spins can form long-range entangled phases of condensed matter named quantum spin liquids. Their existence is conceptualized in models of two- or three-dimensional frustrated magnets that evade symmetry-breaking order down to zero temperature. Quantum spin ice (QSI) is a theoretically well-established example described by an emergent quantum electrodynamics, with excitations behaving like photon and matter quasiparticles. The latter are fractionally charged and equivalent to the `spinons' emerging from coherent phases of singlets in one dimension, where clear experimental proofs of fractionalization exist. However, in frustrated magnets it remains difficult to establish consensual evidence for quantum spin liquid ground states and their fractional excitations. Here, we use backscattering neutron spectroscopy to achieve extremely high resolution of the time-dependent magnetic response of the candidate QSI material Ce2Sn2O7. We find a gapped spectrum featuring a threshold and peaks that match theories for pair production and propagation of fractional matter excitations (spinons) strongly coupled to a background gauge field. The observed peaks provide evidence for a QSI through spectroscopic signatures of space-time symmetry fractionalization, while the threshold behavior corroborates the regime of strong light-matter interaction predicted for the emergent universe in a QSI. more »« less
Broholm, C.; Cava, R. J.; Kivelson, S. A.; Nocera, D. G.; Norman, M. R.; Senthil, T.(
, Science)
null
(Ed.)
Spin liquids are quantum phases of matter with a variety of unusual features arising from their topological character, including “fractionalization”—elementary excitations that behave as fractions of an electron. Although there is not yet universally accepted experimental evidence that establishes that any single material has a spin liquid ground state, in the past few years a number of materials have been shown to exhibit distinctive properties that are expected of a quantum spin liquid. Here, we review theoretical and experimental progress in this area.
A long-standing problem in the study of topological phases of matter has been to understand the types of fractional topological insulator (FTI) phases possible in 3+1 dimensions. Unlike ordinary topological insulators of free fermions, FTI phases are characterized by fractional 𝜃-angles,long-range entanglement, and fractionalization. Starting from a simple family of ℤ_N lattice gauge theories due to Cardy and Rabinovici, we develop a class of FTI phases based on the physical mechanism of oblique confinement and the modern language of generalized global symmetries. We dub these phases oblique topological insulators. Oblique TIs arise when dyons—bound states of electric charges and monopoles—condense, leading to FTI phases characterized by topological order, emergent one-forms symmetries, and gapped boundary states not realizable in 2+1-D alone.Based on the lattice gauge theory, we present continuum topological quantum field theories (TQFTs) for oblique TI phases involving fluctuating one-form and two-form gauge fields. We show explicitly that these TQFTs capture both the generalized global symmetries and topological orders seen in the lattice gauge theory. We also demonstrate that these theories exhibit a universal “generalized magneto-electric effect” in the presence of two-form background gauge fields. Moreover,we characterize the possible boundary topological orders of oblique TIs,finding a new set of boundary states not studied previously for these kinds of TQFTs.
We study a generalized quantum spin ladder with staggered long rangeinteractions that decay as a power-law with exponent \alpha α .Using large scale quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) and density matrixrenormalization group (DMRG) simulations, we show that this modelundergoes a transition from a rung-dimer phase characterized by anon-local string order parameter, to a symmetry broken N'eel phase. Wefind evidence that the transition is second order. In the magneticallyordered phase, the spectrum exhibits gapless modes, while excitations inthe gapped phase are well described in terms of triplons – bound statesof spinons across the legs. We obtain the momentum resolved spin dynamicstructure factor numerically and find a well defined triplon band thatevolves into a gapless magnon dispersion across the transition. Wefurther discuss the possibility of deconfined criticality in thismodel.
Chen, Lebing; Teng, Xiaokun; Tan, Hengxin; Winn, Barry L.; Granroth, Garrett E.; Ye, Feng; Yu, D. H.; Mole, R. A.; Gao, Bin; Yan, Binghai; et al(
, Nature Communications)
Abstract
The combination of a geometrically frustrated lattice, and similar energy scales between degrees of freedom endows two-dimensional Kagome metals with a rich array of quantum phases and renders them ideal for studying strong electron correlations and band topology. The Kagome metal, FeGe is a noted example of this, exhibiting A-type collinear antiferromagnetic (AFM) order atTN ≈ 400 K, then establishes a charge density wave (CDW) phase coupled with AFM ordered moment belowTCDW ≈ 110 K, and finally forms ac-axis double cone AFM structure aroundTCanting ≈ 60 K. Here we use neutron scattering to demonstrate the presence of gapless incommensurate spin excitations associated with the double cone AFM structure of FeGe at temperatures well aboveTCantingandTCDWthat merge into gapped commensurate spin waves from the A-type AFM order. Commensurate spin waves follow the Bose factor and fit the Heisenberg Hamiltonian, while the incommensurate spin excitations, emerging belowTNwhere AFM order is commensurate, start to deviate from the Bose factor aroundTCDW, and peaks atTCanting. This is consistent with a critical scattering of a second order magnetic phase transition with decreasing temperature. By comparing these results with density functional theory calculations, we conclude that the incommensurate magnetic structure arises from the nested Fermi surfaces of itinerant electrons and the formation of a spin density wave order.
Christos, Maine; Luo, Zhu-Xi; Shackleton, Henry; Zhang, Ya-Hui; Scheurer, Mathias S.; Sachdev, Subir(
, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)
We describe the confining instabilities of a proposed quantum spin liquid underlying the pseudogap metal state of the hole-doped cuprates. The spin liquid can be described by a SU(2) gauge theory ofNf= 2 massless Dirac fermions carrying fundamental gauge charges—this is the low-energy theory of a mean-field state of fermionic spinons moving on the square lattice withπ-flux per plaquette in the ℤ2center of SU(2). This theory has an emergent SO(5)fglobal symmetry and is presumed to confine at low energies to the Néel state. At nonzero doping (or smaller Hubbard repulsionUat half-filling), we argue that confinement occurs via the Higgs condensation of bosonic chargons carrying fundamental SU(2) gauge charges also moving inπℤ2-flux. At half-filling, the low-energy theory of the Higgs sector hasNb= 2 relativistic bosons with a possible emergent SO(5)bglobal symmetry describing rotations between ad-wave superconductor, period-2 charge stripes, and the time-reversal breaking “d-density wave” state. We propose a conformal SU(2) gauge theory withNf= 2 fundamental fermions,Nb= 2 fundamental bosons, and a SO(5)f×SO(5)bglobal symmetry, which describes a deconfined quantum critical point between a confining state which breaks SO(5)fand a confining state which breaks SO(5)b. The pattern of symmetry breaking within both SO(5)s is determined by terms likely irrelevant at the critical point, which can be chosen to obtain a transition between Néel order andd-wave superconductivity. A similar theory applies at nonzero doping and largeU, with longer-range couplings of the chargons leading to charge order with longer periods.
Porée, Victor, Yan, Han, Desrochers, Félix, Petit, Sylvain, Lhotel, Elsa, Appel, Markus, Ollivier, Jacques, Kim, Yong Baek, Nevidomskyy, Andriy H., and Sibille, Romain.
"Fractional matter coupled to the emergent gauge field in a quantum spin ice". arXivorg (). Country unknown/Code not available. https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10417054.
@article{osti_10417054,
place = {Country unknown/Code not available},
title = {Fractional matter coupled to the emergent gauge field in a quantum spin ice},
url = {https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10417054},
abstractNote = {Electronic spins can form long-range entangled phases of condensed matter named quantum spin liquids. Their existence is conceptualized in models of two- or three-dimensional frustrated magnets that evade symmetry-breaking order down to zero temperature. Quantum spin ice (QSI) is a theoretically well-established example described by an emergent quantum electrodynamics, with excitations behaving like photon and matter quasiparticles. The latter are fractionally charged and equivalent to the `spinons' emerging from coherent phases of singlets in one dimension, where clear experimental proofs of fractionalization exist. However, in frustrated magnets it remains difficult to establish consensual evidence for quantum spin liquid ground states and their fractional excitations. Here, we use backscattering neutron spectroscopy to achieve extremely high resolution of the time-dependent magnetic response of the candidate QSI material Ce2Sn2O7. We find a gapped spectrum featuring a threshold and peaks that match theories for pair production and propagation of fractional matter excitations (spinons) strongly coupled to a background gauge field. The observed peaks provide evidence for a QSI through spectroscopic signatures of space-time symmetry fractionalization, while the threshold behavior corroborates the regime of strong light-matter interaction predicted for the emergent universe in a QSI.},
journal = {arXivorg},
author = {Porée, Victor and Yan, Han and Desrochers, Félix and Petit, Sylvain and Lhotel, Elsa and Appel, Markus and Ollivier, Jacques and Kim, Yong Baek and Nevidomskyy, Andriy H. and Sibille, Romain},
}
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