263 research outputs found
Reentrance of disorder in the anisotropic shuriken Ising model
For a material to order upon cooling is common sense. What is more seldom is
for disorder to reappear at lower temperature, which is known as reentrant
behavior. Such resurgence of disorder has been observed in a variety of
systems, ranging from Rochelle salts to nematic phases in liquid crystals.
Frustration is often a key ingredient for reentrance mechanisms. Here we shall
study a frustrated model, namely the anisotropic shuriken lattice, which offers
a natural setting to explore an extension of the notion of reentrance between
magnetic disordered phases. By tuning the anisotropy of the lattice, we open a
window in the phase diagram where magnetic disorder prevails down to zero
temperature. In this region, the competition between multiple disordered ground
states gives rise to a double crossover where both the low- and
high-temperature regimes are less correlated than the intervening classical
spin liquid. This reentrance of disorder is characterized by an entropy
plateau, a multi-step Curie law crossover and a rather complex diffuse
scattering in the static structure factor. Those results are confirmed by
complementary numerical and analytical methods: Monte Carlo simulations,
Husimi-tree calculations and an exact decoration-iteration transformation.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figure
Crystal Shape-Dependent Magnetic Susceptibility and Curie Law Crossover in the Spin Ices Dy2Ti2O7 and Ho2Ti2O7
We present an experimental determination of the isothermal magnetic
susceptibility of the spin ice materials Dy2Ti2O7 and Ho2Ti2O7 in the
temperature range 1.8-300 K. The use of spherical crystals has allowed the
accurate correction for demagnetizing fields and allowed the true bulk
isothermal susceptibility X_T(T) to be estimated. This has been compared to a
theoretical expression based on a Husimi tree approximation to the spin ice
model. Agreement between experiment and theory is excellent at T > 10 K, but
systematic deviations occur below that temperature. Our results largely resolve
an apparent disagreement between neutron scattering and bulk measurements that
has been previously noted. They also show that the use of non-spherical
crystals in magnetization studies of spin ice may introduce very significant
systematic errors, although we note some interesting - and possibly new -
systematics concerning the demagnetizing factor in cuboidal samples. Finally,
our results show how experimental susceptibility measurements on spin ices may
be used to extract the characteristic energy scale of the system and the
corresponding chemical potential for emergent magnetic monopoles.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures 1 table. Manuscript submitte
Classical spin liquids in stacked triangular lattice Ising antiferromagnets
We study Ising antiferromagnets that have nearest-neighbour interactions on
multilayer triangular lattices with frustrated ( and ) stacking, and
make comparisons with the unfrustrated () stacking. If interlayer
couplings are much weaker than in-plane ones, the paramagnetic phase of models
with frustrated stackings has a classical spin-liquid regime at low
temperature, in which correlations are strong both within and between planes,
but there is no long-range order. We investigate this regime using Monte Carlo
simulations and by mapping the spin models to coupled height models, which are
treated using renormalisation group methods and an analysis of the effects of
vortex excitations. The classical spin-liquid regime is parametrically wide at
small interlayer coupling in models with frustrated stackings. By contrast, for
the unfrustrated stacking there is no extended regime in which interlayer
correlations are strong without three-dimensional order.Comment: 25 pages, 21 figures; version to appear in Physical Review B,
includes minor correction
Magnetic Monopole Dynamics in Spin Ice
One of the most remarkable examples of emergent quasi-particles, is that of
the "fractionalization" of magnetic dipoles in the low energy configurations of
materials known as "spin ice", into free and unconfined magnetic monopoles
interacting via Coulomb's 1/r law [Castelnovo et. al., Nature, 451, 42-45
(2008)]. Recent experiments have shown that a Coulomb gas of magnetic charges
really does exist at low temperature in these materials and this discovery
provides a new perspective on otherwise largely inaccessible phenomenology. In
this paper, after a review of the different spin ice models, we present
detailed results describing the diffusive dynamics of monopole particles
starting both from the dipolar spin ice model and directly from a Coulomb gas
within the grand canonical ensemble. The diffusive quasi-particle dynamics of
real spin ice materials within "quantum tunneling" regime is modeled with
Metropolis dynamics, with the particles constrained to move along an underlying
network of oriented paths, which are classical analogues of the Dirac strings
connecting pairs of Dirac monopoles.Comment: 26 pages, 12 figure
Analysis of a fully packed loop model arising in a magnetic Coulomb phase
The Coulomb phase of spin ice, and indeed the Ic phase of water ice,
naturally realise a fully-packed two-colour loop model in three dimensions. We
present a detailed analysis of the statistics of these loops, which avoid
themselves and other loops of the same colour, and contrast their behaviour to
an analogous two-dimensional model. The properties of another extended degree
of freedom are also addressed, flux lines of the emergent gauge field of the
Coulomb phase, which appear as "Dirac strings" in spin ice. We mention
implications of these results for related models, and experiments.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
The Kasteleyn transition in three dimensions: spin ice in a [100] field
We discuss the nearest neighbour spin ice model in the presence of a magnetic
field placed along the cubic [100] direction. As recently shown in Phys. Rev.
Lett. 100, 067207, 2008, the symmetry sustaining ordering transition observed
at low temperature is a three dimensional Kasteleyn transition. We confirm this
with numerical data using a non-local algorithm that conserves the topological
constraints at low temperature and from analytic calculations from a Bethe
lattice of corner sharing tetrahedra . We present a thermodynamic description
of the Kasteleyn transition and discuss the relevance of our results to recent
neutron scattering experiments on spin ice materials
Are multiphase competition & order-by-disorder the keys to understanding Yb2Ti2O7?
If magnetic frustration is most commonly known for undermining long-range
order, as famously illustrated by spin liquids, the ability of matter to
develop new collective mechanisms in order to fight frustration is no less
fascinating, providing an avenue for the exploration and discovery of
unconventional properties of matter. Here we study an ideal minimal model of
such mechanisms which, incidentally, pertains to the perplexing quantum spin
ice candidate Yb2Ti2O7. Specifically, we explain how thermal and quantum
fluctuations, optimized by order-by-disorder selection, conspire to expand the
stability region of an accidentally degenerate continuous symmetry U(1)
manifold against the classical splayed ferromagnetic ground state that is
displayed by the sister compound Yb2Sn2O7. The resulting competition gives rise
to multiple phase transitions, in striking similitude with recent experiments
on Yb2Ti2O7 [Lhotel et al., Phys. Rev. B 89 224419 (2014)]. Considering the
effective Hamiltonian determined for Yb2Ti2O7, we provide, by combining a gamut
of numerical techniques, compelling evidence that such multiphase competition
is the long-sought missing key to understanding the intrinsic properties of
this material. As a corollary, our work offers a pertinent illustration of the
influence of chemical pressure in rare-earth pyrochlores.Comment: 9 page
Semiclassical Tunneling of Wavepackets with Real Trajectories
Semiclassical approximations for tunneling processes usually involve complex
trajectories or complex times. In this paper we use a previously derived
approximation involving only real trajectories propagating in real time to
describe the scattering of a Gaussian wavepacket by a finite square potential
barrier. We show that the approximation describes both tunneling and
interferences very accurately in the limit of small Plank's constant. We use
these results to estimate the tunneling time of the wavepacket and find that,
for high energies, the barrier slows down the wavepacket but that it speeds it
up at energies comparable to the barrier height.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures Revised text and figure
Out-of-equilibrium relaxation of the Edwards-Wilkinson elastic line
We study the non-equilibrium relaxation of an elastic line described by the
Edwards-Wilkinson equation. Although this model is the simplest representation
of interface dynamics, we highlight that many (not though all) important
aspects of the non-equilibrium relaxation of elastic manifolds are already
present in such quadratic and clean systems. We analyze in detail the aging
behaviour of several two-times averaged and fluctuating observables taking into
account finite-size effects and the crossover to the stationary and equilibrium
regimes. We start by investigating the structure factor and extracting from its
decay a growing correlation length. We present the full two-times and size
dependence of the interface roughness and we generalize the Family-Vicsek
scaling form to non-equilibrium situations. We compute the incoherent cattering
function and we compare it to the one measured in other glassy systems. We
analyse the response functions, the violation of the fluctuation-dissipation
theorem in the aging regime, and its crossover to the equilibrium relation in
the stationary regime. Finally, we study the out-of-equilibrium fluctuations of
the previously studied two-times functions and we characterize the scaling
properties of their probability distribution functions. Our results allow us to
obtain new insights into other glassy problems such as the aging behavior in
colloidal glasses and vortex glasses.Comment: 33 pages, 16 fig
Scaffolding School Pupils’ Scientific Argumentation with Evidence-Based Dialogue Maps
This chapter reports pilot work investigating the potential of Evidence-based Dialogue Mapping to scaffold young teenagers’ scientific argumentation. Our research objective is to better understand pupils’ usage of dialogue maps created in Compendium to write scientific ex-planations. The participants were 20 pupils, 12-13 years old, in a summer science course for “gifted and talented” children in the UK. Through qualitative analysis of three case studies, we investigate the value of dialogue mapping as a mediating tool in the scientific reasoning process during a set of learning activities. These activities were published in an online learning envi-ronment to foster collaborative learning. Pupils mapped their discussions in pairs, shared maps via the online forum and in plenary discussions, and wrote essays based on their dialogue maps. This study draws on these multiple data sources: pupils’ maps in Compendium, writings in science and reflective comments about the uses of mapping for writing. Our analysis highlights the diversity of ways, both successful and unsuccessful, in which dialogue mapping was used by these young teenagers
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