Dynamical magneto-electric coupling in helical magnets

Collective mode dynamics of the helical magnets coupled to electric polarization via spin-orbit interaction is studied theoretically. The soft modes associated with the ferroelectricity are not the transverse optical phonons, as expected from the Lyddane-Sachs-Teller relation, but are the spin waves hybridized with the electric polarization. This leads to the Drude-like dielectric function $\epsilon(\omega)$ in the limit of zero magnetic anisotropy. There are two more low-lying modes; phason of the spiral and rotation of helical plane along the polarization axis. The roles of these soft modes in the neutron scattering and antiferromagnetic resonance are revealed, and a novel experiment to detect the dynamical magneto-electric coupling is proposed.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

Role of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in multiferroic perovskites

With the perovskite multiferroic RMnO3 (R = Gd, Tb, Dy) as guidance, we argue that the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) provides the microscopic mechanism for the coexistence and strong coupling between ferroelectricity and incommensurate magnetism. We use Monte-Carlo simulations and zero temperature exact calculations to study a model incorporating the double-exchange, superexchange, Jahn-Teller and DMI terms. The phase diagram contains a multiferroic phase between A and E antiferromagnetic phases, in excellent agreement with experiments.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Charged pions from Ni on Ni collisions between 1 and 2 AGeV

Charged pions from Ni + Ni reactions at 1.05, 1.45 and 1.93 AGeV are measured with the FOPI detector. The mean $\pi^{\pm}$ multiplicities per mean number of participants increase with beam energy, in accordance with earlier studies of the Ar + KCl and La + La systems. The pion kinetic energy spectra have concave shape and are fitted by the superposition of two Boltzmann distributions with different temperatures. These apparent temperatures depend only weakly on bombarding energy. The pion angular distributions show a forward/backward enhancement at all energies, but not the $\Theta = 90^0$ enhancement which was observed in case of the Au + Au system. These features also determine the rapidity distributions which are therefore in disagreement with the hypothesis of one thermal source. The importance of the Coulomb interaction and of the pion rescattering by spectator matter in producing these phenomena is discussed.Comment: 22 pages, Latex using documentstyle[12pt,a4,epsfig], to appear in Z. Phys.

Spin dynamics of the quasi two dimensional spin-1/2 quantum magnet Cs_2CuCl_4

We study dynamical properties of the anisotropic triangular quantum antiferromagnet Cs_2CuCl_4. Inelastic neutron scattering measurements have established that the dynamical spin correlations cannot be understood within a linear spin wave analysis. We go beyond linear spin wave theory by taking interactions between magnons into account in a 1/S expansion. We determine the dynamical structure factor and carry out extensive comparisons with experimental data. We find that compared to linear spin wave theory a significant fraction of the scattering intensity is shifted to higher energies and strong scattering continua are present. However, the 1/S expansion fails to account for the experimentally observed large quantum renormalization of the exchange energies.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, higher quality figures can be obtained from the author

Helimagnon Bands as Universal Spin Excitations of Chiral Magnets

MnSi is a cubic compound with small magnetic anisotropy, which stabilizes a helimagnetic spin spiral that reduces to a ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic state in the long- and short-wavelength limit, respectively. We report a comprehensive inelastic neutron scattering study of the collective magnetic excitations in the helimagnetic state of MnSi. In our study we observe a rich variety of seemingly anomalous excitation spectra, as measured in well over twenty different locations in reciprocal space. Using a model based on only three parameters, namely the measured pitch of the helix, the measured ferromagnetic spin wave stiffness and the amplitude of the signal, as the only free variable, we can simultaneously account for \textit{all} of the measured spectra in excellent quantitative agreement with experiment. Our study identifies the formation of intense, strongly coupled bands of helimagnons as a universal characteristic of systems with weak chiral interactions.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, references updated, introduction updated, reformatte

Plans for Hadronic Structure Studies at J-PARC

Hadron-physics projects at J-PARC are explained. The J-PARC is the most-intense hadron-beam facility in the multi-GeV high-energy region. By using secondary beams of kaons, pions, and others as well as the primary-beam proton, various hadron projects are planned. First, some of approved experiments are introduced on strangeness hadron physics and hadron-mass modifications in nuclear medium. Second, future possibilities are discussed on hadron-structure physics, including structure functions of hadrons, spin physics, and high-energy hadron reactions in nuclear medium. The second part is discussed in more details because this is an article in the hadron-structure session.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX, 20 eps files, to be published in Journal of Physics: Conference Series (JPCS), Proceedings of the 24th International Nuclear Physics Conference (INPC 2010), Vancouver, Canada, July 4 - 9, 201

Ground states of a frustrated spin-1/2 antifferomagnet: Cs_2CuCl_4 in a magnetic field

We present detailed calculations of the magnetic ground state properties of Cs$_2$CuCl$_4$ in an applied magnetic field, and compare our results with recent experiments. The material is described by a spin Hamiltonian, determined with precision in high field measurements, in which the main interaction is antiferromagnetic Heisenberg exchange between neighboring spins on an anisotropic triangular lattice. An additional, weak Dzyaloshinkii-Moriya interaction introduces easy-plane anisotropy, so that behavior is different for transverse and longitudinal field directions. We determine the phase diagram as a function of field strength for both field directions at zero temperature, using a classical approximation as a first step. Building on this, we calculate the effect of quantum fluctuations on the ordering wavevector and components of the ordered moments, using both linear spinwave theory and a mapping to a Bose gas which gives exact results when the magnetization is almost saturated. Many aspects of the experimental data are well accounted for by this approach.Comment: 13 Pages, 9 Figure