Gauge-free duality in pure square spin ice: Topological currents and monopoles

Journal Article · 08 October 2021 · AIP Advances

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0070545 · OSTI ID:1829635

Nisoli, Cristiano  ^[1]

---

1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

We consider pure square spin ice, that is, square ice, where only nearest neighbors are coupled. The gauge-free duality between the perpendicular and collinear structure leads to a natural description in terms of topological currents and charges as the relevant degrees of freedom. That, in turn, can be expressed via a continuous field theory where the discrete spins are subsumed into entropic interactions among charges and currents. This approach produces structure factors, correlations, and susceptibilities for spins, monopoles, and currents. It also generalizes the height formalism of the disordered ground state to non-zero temperature. The framework can be applied to the zoology of recent experimental results, especially realizations on quantum annealers, and can be expanded to include longer range interactions.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program
• Grant/Contract Number: 89233218CNA000001
• OSTI ID: 1829635
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1825209
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-21-28824; TRN: US2216836
• Journal Information: AIP Advances, Vol. 11, Issue 10; ISSN 2158-3226
• Publisher: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English