Chiral spin-order in some purported Kitaev spin-liquid compounds

We examine recent magnetic torque measurements in two compounds, $\gamma$-Li$_2$IrO$_3$ and RuCl$_3$, which have been discussed as possible realizations of the Kitaev model. The analysis of the reported discontinuity in torque, as an external magnetic field is rotated across the $c-$axis in both crystals, suggests that they have a translationally-invariant chiral spin-order of the from $\ne 0$ in the ground state and persisting over a very wide range of magnetic field and temperature. An extra-ordinary $|B|B^2$ dependence of the torque for small fields, beside the usual $B^2$ part, is predicted due to the chiral spin-order, and found to be consistent with experiments upon further analysis of the data. Other experiments such as inelastic scattering and thermal Hall effect and several questions raised by the discovery of chiral spin-order, including its topological consequences are discussed.Comment: Clearer figures of the experimental data provided. Also clearer exposition and comment on related recent wor

Thermodynamic constraints on the amplitude of quantum oscillations

Magneto-quantum oscillation experiments in high temperature superconductors show a strong thermally-induced suppression of the oscillation amplitude approaching critical dopings---in support of a quantum critical origin of their phase diagrams. We suggest that, in addition to a thermodynamic mass enhancement, these experiments may directly indicate the increasing role of quantum fluctuations that suppress the oscillation amplitude through inelastic scattering. We show that the traditional theoretical approaches beyond Lifshitz-Kosevich to calculate the oscillation amplitude in correlated metals result in a contradiction with the third law of thermodynamics and suggest a way to rectify this problem.Comment: PRB Rapid commun. (2017

Rapid Method for Computing the Mechanical Resonances of Irregular Objects

A solid object's geometry, density, and elastic moduli completely determine its spectrum of normal modes. Solving the inverse problem - determining a material's elastic moduli given a set of resonance frequencies and sample geometry - relies on the ability to compute resonance spectra accurately and efficiently. Established methods for calculating these spectra are either fast but limited to simple geometries, or are applicable to arbitrarily shaped samples at the cost of being prohibitively slow. Here, we describe a method to rapidly compute the normal modes of irregularly shaped objects using entirely open-source software. Our method's accuracy compares favorably with existing methods for simple geometries and shows a significant improvement in speed over existing methods for irregular geometries.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figure

Langevin equations with multiplicative noise: resolution of time discretization ambiguities for equilibrium systems

A Langevin equation with multiplicative noise is an equation schematically of the form dq/dt = -F(q) + e(q) xi, where e(q) xi is Gaussian white noise whose amplitude e(q) depends on q itself. Such equations are ambiguous, and depend on the details of one's convention for discretizing time when solving them. I show that these ambiguities are uniquely resolved if the system has a known equilibrium distribution exp[-V(q)/T] and if, at some more fundamental level, the physics of the system is reversible. I also discuss a simple example where this happens, which is the small frequency limit of Newton's equation d^2q/dt^2 + e^2(q) dq/dt = - grad V(q) + e^{-1}(q) xi with noise and a q-dependent damping term. The resolution does not correspond to simply interpreting naive continuum equations in a standard convention, such as Stratanovich or Ito. [One application of Langevin equations with multiplicative noise is to certain effective theories for hot, non-Abelian plasmas.]Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures [further corrections to Appendix A

Extent of Fermi-surface reconstruction in the high-temperature superconductor HgBa2_2CuO4+δ_{4+\delta}

High magnetic fields have revealed a surprisingly small Fermi-surface in underdoped cuprates, possibly resulting from Fermi-surface reconstruction due to an order parameter that breaks translational symmetry of the crystal lattice. A crucial issue concerns the doping extent of this state and its relationship to the principal pseudogap and superconducting phases. We employ pulsed magnetic field measurements on the cuprate HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4+\delta}$ to identify signatures of Fermi surface reconstruction from a sign change of the Hall effect and a peak in the temperature-dependent planar resistivity. We trace the termination of Fermi-surface reconstruction to two hole concentrations where the superconducting upper critical fields are found to be enhanced. One of these points is associated with the pseudogap end-point near optimal doping. These results connect the Fermi-surface reconstruction to both superconductivity and the pseudogap phenomena.Comment: 5 pages. 3 Figures. PNAS (2020

Dirac dispersion and non-trivial Berry's phase in three-dimensional semimetal RhSb3

We report observations of magnetoresistance, quantum oscillations and angle-resolved photoemission in RhSb$_3$, a unfilled skutterudite semimetal with low carrier density. The calculated electronic band structure of RhSb$_3$ entails a $Z_2$ quantum number $\nu_0=0,\nu_1=\nu_2=\nu_3=1$ in analogy to strong topological insulators, and inverted linear valence/conduction bands that touch at discrete points close to the Fermi level, in agreement with angle-resolved photoemission results. Transport experiments reveal an unsaturated linear magnetoresistance that approaches a factor of 200 at 60 T magnetic fields, and quantum oscillations observable up to 150~K that are consistent with a large Fermi velocity ($\sim 1.3\times 10^6$ ms$^{-1}$), high carrier mobility ($\sim 14$ $m^2$/Vs), and small three dimensional hole pockets with nontrivial Berry phase. A very small, sample-dependent effective mass that falls as low as $0.015(7)$ bare masses scales with Fermi velocity, suggesting RhSb$_3$ is a new class of zero-gap three-dimensional Dirac semimetal.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure