arXiv · 2106.15631
Spectroscopic fingerprints of gapless type-II fracton phases
Abstract
Fracton phases feature elementary excitations with fractionalized mobility and are exciting interest from multiple areas of theoretical physics. However, the most exotic 'type-II' fracton phases, like the Haah codes, currently have no known experimental diagnostics. Here, we explain how type-II fracton phases with gapless gauge modes, such as the $\mathrm{U}(1)$ Haah code, may be identified experimentally. Our analysis makes use of the 'multipole gauge theory' description of type-II fracton phases, which exhibits ultraviolet-infrared (UV-IR) mixing. We show that neutron scattering experiments on gapless type-II fracton phases should generically exhibit exotic pinch points in the structure factor, with distinctive anisotropic contours as a direct consequence of UV-IR mixing. This characteristic pinch point structure provides a clean diagnostic of type-II fracton phases. We also identify distinctive signatures of the (3+1)-D $\mathrm{U}(1)$ Haah code in the low-temperature specific heat.
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Oliver Hart, Rahul Nandkishore. 2021-06-29. Spectroscopic fingerprints of gapless type-II fracton phases. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.105.l180416
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