Riemannian geometric classification and emergent phenomena of magnetic textures

Abstract

We propose a new classification of magnetic textures from the viewpoint of differential geometry. Magnetic textures are conventionally classified into collinear, coplanar, and noncoplanar magnets. These classes are typically characterized by the vector spin chirality (VSC) and the scalar spin chirality (SSC), which indicate noncollinearity and noncoplanarity, respectively. However, this conventional classification is incomplete: in particular, noncoplanar textures cannot be fully characterized by the SSC alone, as exemplified by conical magnets. To refine this classification, we analyze the curves and surfaces traced by spins in real space using differential geometry and introduce two novel scalar spin chiralities that properly characterize noncoplanarity: the geodesic scalar spin chirality and the torsional scalar spin chirality. These quantities are directly connected to differential geometry: the former reflects the geodesic curvature while the latter is related to the torsion. Based on these chiralities, we identify three distinct classes of noncoplanar magnetic textures. Furthermore, analogous to the roles of the VSC and the conventional SSC in emergent electrodynamics, the geodesic SSC gives rise to novel emergent phenomena. By constructing a semiclassical theory including nonadiabatic effects and higher-order spatial gradients of magnetic textures, we demonstrate that the geodesic SSC induces an emergent band asymmetry, leading to nonreciprocal responses as a quantum geometric effect. This mechanism is a purely orbital effect, requiring no spin-orbit coupling, and the resulting discussion runs in parallel with the conventional picture of the topological Hall effect driven by the SSC. The geometric viewpoint developed here will provide broad new insights into classification, quantum geometry, emergent electrodynamics, and a wider variety of emergent phenomena.