A spin-liquid with pinch-line singularities on the pyrochlore lattice

Owen Benton (), L.D.C. Jaubert, Han Yan and Nic Shannon
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Owen Benton: Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University
L.D.C. Jaubert: Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University
Han Yan: Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University
Nic Shannon: Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract The mathematics of gauge theories lies behind many of the most profound advances in physics in the past 200 years, from Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetism to Einstein’s theory of general relativity. More recently it has become clear that gauge theories also emerge in condensed matter, a prime example being the spin-ice materials which host an emergent electromagnetic gauge field. In spin-ice, the underlying gauge structure is revealed by the presence of pinch-point singularities in neutron-scattering measurements. Here we report the discovery of a spin-liquid where the low-temperature physics is naturally described by the fluctuations of a tensor field with a continuous gauge freedom. This gauge structure underpins an unusual form of spin correlations, giving rise to pinch-line singularities: line-like analogues of the pinch points observed in spin-ice. Remarkably, these features may already have been observed in the pyrochlore material Tb2Ti2O7.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11572

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