Competing orders in pyrochlore magnets from a spin liquid perspective
Abstract
We report that the pyrochlore materials have long been predicted to harbor a quantum spin liquid, an intrinsic long-rangeentangled state supporting fractionalized excitations. Existing pyrochlore experiments, on the other hand, have discovered several weakly ordered states and a tendency of close competition amongst them. Motivated by these facts, we give a complete classification of spin-orbit-coupled spin-liquid states on the pyrochlore lattice by using the projective symmetry group (PSG) approach for bosonic spinons. For each spin liquid, we construct a mean-field Hamiltonian that can be used to describe phase transitions out of the spin liquid via spinon condensation. Studying these phase transitions, we establish phase diagrams for our mean-field Hamiltonians that link magnetic orders to specific spin liquids. In general, we find that seemingly unrelated magnetic orders are intertwined with each other and that the conventional spin orders seen in the experiments are accompanied by more exotic hidden orders. Our critical theories are categorized into z = 1 and z = 2 types, based on their spinon dispersion and Hamiltonian diagonalizability, and are shown to give distinct signatures in the heat capacity and the spin structure factor. Lastly, this study provides a clear map of pyrochlore phases for future experiments and variational Monte Carlo studies in pyrochlore materials.
- Authors:
-
- Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)
- Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States) ; Canadian Inst.for Advanced Research, Toronto, ON (Canada)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States). Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1556863
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1556842
- Grant/Contract Number:
- FG02-08ER46524
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Physical Review B
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 100; Journal Issue: 7; Journal ID: ISSN 2469-9950
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; 75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
Citation Formats
Liu, Chunxiao, Halász, Gábor B., and Balents, Leon. Competing orders in pyrochlore magnets from a Z2 spin liquid perspective. United States: N. p., 2019.
Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.100.075125.
Liu, Chunxiao, Halász, Gábor B., & Balents, Leon. Competing orders in pyrochlore magnets from a Z2 spin liquid perspective. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.100.075125
Liu, Chunxiao, Halász, Gábor B., and Balents, Leon. Mon .
"Competing orders in pyrochlore magnets from a Z2 spin liquid perspective". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.100.075125. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1556863.
@article{osti_1556863,
title = {Competing orders in pyrochlore magnets from a Z2 spin liquid perspective},
author = {Liu, Chunxiao and Halász, Gábor B. and Balents, Leon},
abstractNote = {We report that the pyrochlore materials have long been predicted to harbor a quantum spin liquid, an intrinsic long-rangeentangled state supporting fractionalized excitations. Existing pyrochlore experiments, on the other hand, have discovered several weakly ordered states and a tendency of close competition amongst them. Motivated by these facts, we give a complete classification of spin-orbit-coupled Z2 spin-liquid states on the pyrochlore lattice by using the projective symmetry group (PSG) approach for bosonic spinons. For each spin liquid, we construct a mean-field Hamiltonian that can be used to describe phase transitions out of the spin liquid via spinon condensation. Studying these phase transitions, we establish phase diagrams for our mean-field Hamiltonians that link magnetic orders to specific spin liquids. In general, we find that seemingly unrelated magnetic orders are intertwined with each other and that the conventional spin orders seen in the experiments are accompanied by more exotic hidden orders. Our critical theories are categorized into z = 1 and z = 2 types, based on their spinon dispersion and Hamiltonian diagonalizability, and are shown to give distinct signatures in the heat capacity and the spin structure factor. Lastly, this study provides a clear map of pyrochlore phases for future experiments and variational Monte Carlo studies in pyrochlore materials.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevB.100.075125},
journal = {Physical Review B},
number = 7,
volume = 100,
place = {United States},
year = {2019},
month = {8}
}
Web of Science
Figures / Tables:

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Works referencing / citing this record:
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Figures / Tables found in this record: