Competing gauge fields and entropically driven spin liquid to spin liquid transition in non-Kramers pyrochlores

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lozano-Gomez, Daniel; Noculak, Vincent; Oitmaa, Jaan; Singh, Rajiv R. P.; Iqbal, Yasir; Reuther, Johannes; Gingras, Michel J. P.
• 署名单位: University of Waterloo; Technische Universitat Dresden; Technische Universitat Dresden; Free University of Berlin; Free University of Berlin; Helmholtz Association; Helmholtz-Zentrum fuer Materialien und Energie GmbH (HZB); University of New South Wales Sydney; University of California System; University of California Davis; Indian Institute of Technology System (IIT System); Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) - Madras; Indian Institute of Technology System (IIT System); Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) - Madras
• 刊物名称: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0027-12072
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2403487121
• 发表日期: 2024-09-03
• 关键词: coulomb phase; kagome; ORDER; ice; disorder; MODEL

摘要

Gauge theories are powerful theoretical physics tools that allow complex phenomena to be reduced to simple principles and are used in both high-energy and condensed matter physics. In the latter context, gauge theories are becoming increasingly popular for capturing the intricate spin correlations in spin liquids, exotic states of matter in which the dynamics of quantum spins never ceases, even at absolute zero temperature. We consider a spin system on a three-dimensional pyrochlore lattice where emergent gauge fields not only describe the spin liquid behavior at zero temperature but crucially determine the system's temperature evolution, with distinct gauge fields giving rise to different spin liquid phases in separate temperature regimes. Focusing first on classical spins, in an intermediate temperature regime, the system shows an unusual coexistence of emergent vector and tensor gauge fields where the former is known from classical spin ice systems while the latter has been associated with fractonic quasiparticles, a peculiar type of excitation with restricted mobility. Upon cooling, the system transitions into a low-temperature phase where an entropic selection mechanism depopulates the degrees of freedom associated with the tensor gauge field, rendering the system spin-ice-like. We further provide numerical evidence that in the corresponding quantum model, a spin liquid with coexisting vector and tensor gauge fields has a finite window of stability in the parameter space of spin interactions down to zero temperature. Finally, we discuss the relevance of our findings for non-Kramers magnetic pyrochlore materials.