Unexpected Phenomenology in Particle-Based Ice Absent in Magnetic Spin Ice

Cristiano Nisoli

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.120.167205

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arXiv · 1802.07900

Unexpected Phenomenology in Particle-Based Ice Absent in Magnetic Spin Ice

Cristiano Nisoli

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Abstract

While particle-based ices are often considered essentially equivalent to magnet-based spin ices, the two differ essentially in frustration and energetics. We show that at equilibrium particle-based ices correspond exactly to spin ices coupled to a background field. In trivial geometries, such a field has no effect, and the two systems are indeed thermodynamically equivalent. In other cases, however, the field controls a richer phenomenology, absent in magnetic ices, and still largely unexplored: ice rule fragility, topological charge transfer, radial polarization, decimation induced disorder, and glassiness.

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Cristiano Nisoli. 2018-02-22. Unexpected Phenomenology in Particle-Based Ice Absent in Magnetic Spin Ice. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.120.167205

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