Quantum spin ice under a [111] magnetic field: from pyrochlore to kagom\'e

Abstract

Quantum spin ice, modeled for magnetic rare-earth pyrochlores, has attracted great interest for hosting a U(1) quantum spin liquid, which involves spin-ice monopoles as gapped deconfined spinons, as well as gapless excitations analogous to photons. However, the global phase diagram under a [111] magnetic field remains open. Here we uncover by means of unbiased quantum Monte-Carlo simulations that a supersolid of monopoles, showing both a superfluidity and a partial ionization, intervenes the kagom\'e spin ice and a fully ionized monopole insulator, in contrast to classical spin ice where a direct discontinuous phase transition takes place. We also show that on cooling, kagom\'e spin ice evolves towards a valence bond solid similar to what appears in the associated kagom\'e lattice model [S. V. Isakov et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 147202 (2006)]. Possible relevance to experiments is discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication in PR