Quantum Liquid with Deconfined Fractional Excitations in Three Dimensions

Journal Article · Fri Dec 11 00:00:00 EST 2009 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.103.247001· OSTI ID:21370904

Sikora, Olga ^[1]; Pollmann, Frank ^[2]; Shannon, Nic ^[3]; Penc, Karlo ^[4]; Fulde, Peter ^[1]

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1. Max-Planck-Institut fuer Physik komplexer Systeme, 01187 Dresden (Germany)
2. Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720 (United States)
3. H. H. Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TL (United Kingdom)
4. Research Institute for Solid State Physics and Optics, H-1525 Budapest, P.O.B. 49 (Hungary)

Excitations which carry 'fractional' quantum numbers are known to exist in one dimension in polyacetylene, and in two dimensions, in the fractional quantum Hall effect. Fractional excitations have also been invoked to explain the breakdown of the conventional theory of metals in a wide range of three-dimensional materials. However, the existence of fractional excitations in three dimensions remains highly controversial. In this Letter we report direct numerical evidence for the existence of an extended quantum liquid phase supporting fractional excitations in a concrete, three-dimensional microscopic model--the quantum dimer model on a diamond lattice. We demonstrate explicitly that the energy cost of separating fractional monomer excitations vanishes in this liquid phase, and that its energy spectrum matches that of the Coulomb phase in (3+1)-dimensional quantum electrodynamics.

• OSTI ID: 21370904
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 103, Issue 24; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.247001; (c) 2009 The American Physical Society; ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ENERGY ACCOUNTING
ENERGY SPECTRA
EXCITATION
FCC LATTICES
HALL EFFECT
METALS
MONOMERS
ONE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
QUANTUM ELECTRODYNAMICS
QUANTUM NUMBERS
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
ACCOUNTING
CRYSTAL LATTICES
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
CUBIC LATTICES
ELECTRODYNAMICS
ELEMENTS
ENERGY ANALYSIS
ENERGY-LEVEL TRANSITIONS
FIELD THEORIES
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
SPECTRA