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Coulombic Quantum Liquids in Spin-1/2 Pyrochlores

Lucile Savary1,2 and Leon Balents3

  • 1Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, 46, allée d’Italie, 69364 Lyon Cedex 07, France
  • 2Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106-9530, USA
  • 3Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, 93106-4030, USA

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 037202 – Published 19 January, 2012

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.037202

Abstract

We develop a nonperturbative gauge mean field theory (gMFT) method to study a general effective spin-1/2 model for magnetism in rare earth pyrochlores. gMFT is based on a novel exact slave-particle formulation, and matches both the perturbative regime near the classical spin ice limit and the semiclassical approximation far from it. We show that the full phase diagram contains two exotic phases: a quantum spin liquid and a Coulombic ferromagnet, both of which support deconfined spinon excitations and emergent quantum electrodynamics. Phenomenological properties of these phases are discussed.

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References (15)

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 037202– Published 19 January, 2012
  • Received 10 October 2011
Article part of CHORUS

© 2012 American Physical Society

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