Disorder-Induced Quantum Spin Liquid in Spin Ice Pyrochlores
We propose that in a certain class of magnetic materials, known as non-Kramers “spin ice,” disorder induces quantum entanglement. Instead of driving glassy behavior, disorder provokes quantum superpositions of spins throughout the system and engenders an associated emergent gauge structure and set o...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
American Physical Society
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/107479 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3706-8503 |
| Summary: | We propose that in a certain class of magnetic materials, known as non-Kramers “spin ice,” disorder induces quantum entanglement. Instead of driving glassy behavior, disorder provokes quantum superpositions of spins throughout the system and engenders an associated emergent gauge structure and set of fractional excitations. More precisely, disorder transforms a classical phase governed by a large entropy, classical spin ice, into a quantum spin liquid governed by entanglement. As the degree of disorder is increased, the system transitions between (i) a “regular” Coulombic spin liquid, (ii) a phase known as “Mott glass,” which contains rare gapless regions in real space, but whose behavior on long length scales is only modified quantitatively, and (iii) a true glassy phase for random distributions with large width or large mean amplitude. |
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