1,120 research outputs found
The Spin Liquid State of the Tb2Ti2O7 Pyrochlore Antiferromagnet: A Puzzling State of Affairs
The pyrochlore antiferromagnet Tb2Ti2O7 has proven to be an enigma to
experimentalists and theorists working on frustrated magnetic systems. The
experimentally determined energy level structure suggests a local Ising
antiferromagnet at low temperatures, T < 10 K. An appropriate model then
predicts a long-range ordered Q = 0 state below approximately 2 K. However,
muon spin resonance experiments reveal a paramagnetic structure down to tens of
milli-Kelvin. The importance of fluctuations out of the ground state effective
Ising doublet has been recently understood, for the measured paramagnetic
correlations can not be described without including the higher crystal field
states. However, these fluctuations treated within the random phase
approximation (RPA) fail to account for the lack of ordering in this system
below 2 K. In this work, we briefly review the experimental evidence for the
collective paramagnetic state of Tb2Ti2O7. The basic theoretical picture for
this system is discussed, where results from classical spin models are used to
motivate the investigation of quantum effects to lowest order via the RPA.
Avenues for future experimental and theoretical work on Tb2Ti2O7 are presented.Comment: Latex2e,6 pages, IOP format, introduction shortened and other minor
corrections, replaced with published version in the Proceedings of the Highly
Frustrated Magnetism 2003 Conference, Grenobl
Ferroelectric and Dipolar Glass Phases of Non-Crystalline Systems
In a recent letter [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 75}, 2360 (1996)] we briefly
discussed the existence and nature of ferroelectric order in positionally
disordered dipolar materials. Here we report further results and give a
complete description of our work. Simulations of randomly frozen and
dynamically disordered dipolar soft spheres are used to study ferroelectric
ordering in non-crystalline systems. We also give a physical interpretation of
the simulation results in terms of short- and long-range interactions. Cases
where the dipole moment has 1, 2, and 3 components (Ising, XY and XYZ models,
respectively) are considered. It is found that the Ising model displays
ferroelectric phases in frozen amorphous systems, while the XY and XYZ models
form dipolar glass phases at low temperatures. In the dynamically disordered
model the equations of motion are decoupled such that particle translation is
completely independent of the dipolar forces. These systems spontaneously
develop long-range ferroelectric order at nonzero temperature despite the
absence of any fined-tuned short-range spatial correlations favoring dipolar
order. Furthermore, since this is a nonequilibrium model we find that the
paraelectric to ferroelectric transition depends on the particle mass. For the
XY and XYZ models, the critical temperatures extrapolate to zero as the mass of
the particle becomes infinite, whereas, for the Ising model the critical
temperature is almost independent of mass and coincides with the ferroelectric
transition found for the randomly frozen system at the same density. Thus in
the infinite mass limit the results of the frozen amorphous systems are
recovered.Comment: 25 pages (LATEX, no macros). 11 POSTSCRIPT figures enclosed.
Submitted to Phisical Review E. Contact: [email protected]
Evidence for gapped spin-wave excitations in the frustrated Gd2Sn2O7 pyrochlore antiferromagnet from low-temperature specific heat measurements
We have measured the low-temperature specific heat of the geometrically
frustrated pyrochlore Heisenberg antiferromagnet Gd2Sn2O7 in zero magnetic
field. The specific heat is found to drop exponentially below approximately 350
mK. This provides evidence for a gapped spin-wave spectrum due to an anisotropy
resulting from single ion effects and long-range dipolar interactions. The data
are well fitted by linear spin-wave theory, ruling out unconventional low
energy magnetic excitations in this system, and allowing a determination of the
pertinent exchange interactions in this material
Non-trivial fixed point structure of the two-dimensional +-J 3-state Potts ferromagnet/spin glass
The fixed point structure of the 2D 3-state random-bond Potts model with a
bimodal (J) distribution of couplings is for the first time fully
determined using numerical renormalization group techniques. Apart from the
pure and T=0 critical fixed points, two other non-trivial fixed points are
found. One is the critical fixed point for the random-bond, but unfrustrated,
ferromagnet. The other is a bicritical fixed point analogous to the bicritical
Nishimori fixed point found in the random-bond frustrated Ising model.
Estimates of the associated critical exponents are given for the various fixed
points of the random-bond Potts model.Comment: 4 pages, 2 eps figures, RevTex 3.0 format requires float and epsfig
macro
Quantum spin fluctuations in the dipolar Heisenberg-like rare earth pyrochlores
The magnetic pyrochlore oxide materials of general chemical formula R2Ti2O7
and R2Sn2O7 (R = rare earth) display a host of interesting physical behaviours
depending on the flavour of rare earth ion. These properties depend on the
value of the total magnetic moment, the crystal field interactions at each rare
earth site and the complex interplay between magnetic exchange and long-range
dipole-dipole interactions. This work focuses on the low temperature physics of
the dipolar isotropic frustrated antiferromagnetic pyrochlore materials.
Candidate magnetic ground states are numerically determined at zero temperature
and the role of quantum spin fluctuations around these states are studied using
a Holstein-Primakoff spin wave expansion to order 1/S. The results indicate the
strong stability of the proposed classical ground states against quantum
fluctuations. The inclusion of long range dipole interactions causes a
restoration of symmetry and a suppression of the observed anisotropy gap
leading to an increase in quantum fluctuations in the ground state when
compared to a model with truncated dipole interactions. The system retains most
of its classical character and there is little deviation from the fully ordered
moment at zero temperature.Comment: Latex2e, 18 pages, 4 figures, IOP forma
Zero-temperature phase of the XY spin glass in two dimensions: Genetic embedded matching heuristic
For many real spin-glass materials, the Edwards-Anderson model with
continuous-symmetry spins is more realistic than the rather better understood
Ising variant. In principle, the nature of an occurring spin-glass phase in
such systems might be inferred from an analysis of the zero-temperature
properties. Unfortunately, with few exceptions, the problem of finding
ground-state configurations is a non-polynomial problem computationally, such
that efficient approximation algorithms are called for. Here, we employ the
recently developed genetic embedded matching (GEM) heuristic to investigate the
nature of the zero-temperature phase of the bimodal XY spin glass in two
dimensions. We analyze bulk properties such as the asymptotic ground-state
energy and the phase diagram of disorder strength vs. disorder concentration.
For the case of a symmetric distribution of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic
bonds, we find that the ground state of the model is unique up to a global O(2)
rotation of the spins. In particular, there are no extensive degeneracies in
this model. The main focus of this work is on an investigation of the
excitation spectrum as probed by changing the boundary conditions. Using
appropriate finite-size scaling techniques, we consistently determine the
stiffness of spin and chiral domain walls and the corresponding fractal
dimensions. Most noteworthy, we find that the spin and chiral channels are
characterized by two distinct stiffness exponents and, consequently, the system
displays spin-chirality decoupling at large length scales. Results for the
overlap distribution do not support the possibility of a multitude of
thermodynamic pure states.Comment: 18 pages, RevTex 4, moderately revised version as publishe
Neutron spectroscopic study of crystal field excitations in Tb2Ti2O7 and Tb2Sn2O7
We present time-of-flight inelastic neutron scattering measurements at low
temperature on powder samples of the magnetic pyrochlore oxides Tb2Ti2O7 and
Tb2Sn2O7. These two materials possess related, but different ground states,
with Tb2Sn2O7 displaying "soft" spin ice order below Tn~0.87 K, while Tb2Ti2O7
enters a hybrid, glassy spin ice state below Tg~0.2 K. Our neutron
measurements, performed at T=1.5 K and 30 K, probe the crystal field states
associated with the J=6 states of Tb3+ within the appropriate Fd\bar{3}m
pyrochlore environment. These crystal field states determine the size and
anisotropy of the Tb3+ magnetic moment in each material's ground state,
information that is an essential starting point for any description of the
low-temperature phase behavior and spin dynamics in Tb2Ti2O7 and Tb2Sn2O7.
While these two materials have much in common, the cubic stanate lattice is
expanded compared to the cubic titanate lattice. As our measurements show, this
translates into a factor of ~2 increase in the crystal field bandwidth of the
2J+1=13 states in Tb2Ti2O7 compared with Tb2Sn2O7. Our results are consistent
with previous measurements on crystal field states in Tb2Sn2O7, wherein the
ground state doublet corresponds primarily to m_J=|\pm 5> and the first excited
state doublet to mJ=|\pm 4>. In contrast, our results on Tb2Ti2O7 differ
markedly from earlier studies, showing that the ground state doublet
corresponds to a significant mixture of mJ=|\pm 5>, |\mp 4>, and |\pm 2>, while
the first excited state doublet corresponds to a mixture of mJ=|\pm 4>, |\mp
5>, and |\pm 1>. We discuss these results in the context of proposed mechanisms
for the failure of Tb2Ti2O7 to develop conventional long-range order down to 50
mK.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures. Version is the same as the published one, except
for figure placement on page
Vortex lines in the three-dimensional XY model with random phase shifts
The stability of the ordered phase of the three-dimensional XY-model with
random phase shifts is studied by considering the roughening of a single
stretched vortex line due to the disorder. It is shown that the vortex line may
be described by a directed polymer Hamiltonian with an effective random
potential that is long range correlated. A Flory argument estimates the
roughness exponent to and the energy fluctuation exponent to
, thus fulfilling the scaling relation . The
Schwartz-Edwards method as well as a numerical integration of the corresponding
Burger's equation confirm this result. Since the ordered phase of the
original XY-model is stable.Comment: 8 pages RevTeX, 3 eps-figures include
- …