Nordita seminar
Spin liquid phase and Higgs transitions in spin ice
by
→
Europe/Stockholm
122:026
122:026
Description
In frustrated systems, where competing interactions disfavour the formation of order, a "spin liquid" can appear at low temperatures. In contrast to conventional magnetic phases, the spin liquid exhibits both strong correlations and large fluctuations. A prominent experimental example is provided by the class of compounds known as "spin ice".
Perturbations applied to such systems can relieve the frustration and cause ordering, and I will argue that the resulting transitions go beyond the standard Landau paradigm. They can instead be understood as Higgs transitions of an emergent gauge theory and belong to a family of new universality classes. I will present theoretical predictions of such unconventional transitions in the spin ice materials, and supporting evidence from numerical simulations.
Perturbations applied to such systems can relieve the frustration and cause ordering, and I will argue that the resulting transitions go beyond the standard Landau paradigm. They can instead be understood as Higgs transitions of an emergent gauge theory and belong to a family of new universality classes. I will present theoretical predictions of such unconventional transitions in the spin ice materials, and supporting evidence from numerical simulations.