arXiv subjects

Cecilie Glittum

Publications and source records attributed to Cecilie Glittum.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Fractional vortices in a spin-isotropic spiral spin liquid

Spiral spin liquids are magnetic states whose classical ground-state manifold consists of planar incommensurate spin spirals with wave vectors lying on a continuous ring or surface in reciprocal space. The resulting subextensive degeneracy suppresses magnetic long-range order and gives rise to liquid-like behavior. Despite numerous material realizations and theoretical investigations, the structure of low-temperature spin configurations of spin-isotropic Heisenberg spiral spin liquids has remained poorly understood. Here, we classify and characterize the classical topological defects supported by these systems. We uncover a rich family of vortex types involving concerted windings of spin directions, spiral-plane normals, and wave-vector orientations, yielding a $\mathbb{Z} \times \mathbb{Z}_2$ classification. Remarkably, the elementary defects are half-vortices carrying fractional $2π$ windings in both spin and momentum space and obey fusion rules resembling to those of Ising anyons. Large-scale classical simulations of a square-lattice spiral spin liquid reveal that these vortices are dense in the spiral-spin-liquid regime, and bind tightly below an order-by-disorder phase transition, eventually fusing to vacuum.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2026

Weak first-order phase transition out of the classical kagome spin liquid

The low-temperature fate of the spin-liquid regime in the classical kagome Heisenberg antiferromagnet has been debated for over three decades. Using an expansion in the number of spin components, we show that, contrary to earlier Monte Carlo simulations, the spin liquid terminates at a weak first-order phase transition into the $\sqrt{3}\times\sqrt{3}$ phase which ordered moment saturates at zero temperature. Adding second-neighbor interactions, this transition belongs to a line of first-order phase transitions that ends at a critical point. For comparison, the pyrochlore antiferromagnet remains disordered at all temperatures.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2026

The Finite-Temperature Behavior of a Triangular Heisenberg Antiferromagnet

We investigate the classical antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on the triangular lattice with up to third-nearest neighbor exchange couplings using the Nematic Bond Theory. This approach allows us to compute the free energy and the neutron scattering static structure factor at finite temperatures. We map out the phase diagram with a particular emphasis on finite-temperature phase transitions that break lattice-rotational symmetries, spiral spin liquids and the broad specific heat hump that is ubiquitous in the antiferromagnetic 120 degree phase. We identify this specific heat hump as signaling the onset of an exponentially increasing correlation length. Further, we map out the temperature of the specific heat hump and the transition temperatures of the symmetry-breaking transitions throughout the exchange-coupling space. Along the line $J_3 = J_2/2$, the Fourier-transformed exchange coupling exhibits a degenerate ring-like minimum, giving rise to spiral spin liquid behavior at intermediate temperatures. We investigate the structure factor of the spiral spin liquid as function of $J_2$ and identify the corresponding low-temperature order, which coincides with the single-$\vec{q}$ spiral states of maximum spin-wave entropy along the degenerate ring.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2026

Dynamical magnetism in the disordered cubic lattice material $γ$-${\rm Ba}_{3}{\rm CoNb}_{2}{\rm O}_{9}$

$γ$-${\rm Ba}_{3}{\rm CoNb}_{2}{\rm O}_{9}$ realizes a disordered simple-cubic spin-$1/2$ lattice in which Co$^{2+}$ ions randomly occupy one third of the sites, placing the system close to the site-percolation threshold for magnetic order. Specific-heat, susceptibility, neutron spin-echo, and muon spin-rotation measurements reveal a broad thermodynamic crossover, short-range magnetic correlations, and persistent fast spin dynamics down to at least 0.1~K, with no evidence for static order or conventional spin-glass freezing. Monte Carlo simulations yield a broad distribution of orphan spins, finite clusters, and an infinite network. The calculated orphan-spin fraction ($\approx 8.8\%$) agrees well with the weakly correlated spin fraction inferred from magnetization ($\approx 8.2\%$). Exact diagonalization of a diluted $S = 1/2$ Heisenberg model captures the broad magnetic specific-heat anomaly and supports the coexistence of weakly and strongly correlated spin environments. These results support a picture in which spin-$1/2$ quantum fluctuations, together with dilution and proximity to the percolation threshold, can support a disorder-driven dynamical state with short-range correlations in three dimensions, distinct from both classical spin glasses and geometrically frustrated quantum spin liquids.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2026

Resonating Valence Bond Ground States on Corner-sharing Simplices

The Hubbard model in the $U\to\infty$ limit has been known to have resonating valence bond (RVB) ground states on certain corner-sharing simplex lattices. Examples include both the quasi-1D sawtooth lattice with open boundary and a larger class of higher dimensional lattices without boundaries. The two types of results were obtained by different approaches which do not apply to one another. In the second class of lattices, the simplest simplex is a tetrahedron. We hereby generalize both results by studying the singly hole-doped system on the quasi-1D lattice of a tetrahedron chain, which can be considered a stripe of the pyrochlore or checkerboard lattices. The energy level ordering of irreducible representations of each tetrahedron shows that a chain of them has exponentially degenerate partial RVB or dimer-monomer ground states where each tetrahedron hosts one spin-$1/2$ monomer and one spin-$0$ dimer. The exact ground states in the infinitely long chain limit are analytically solved by introducing basis transformations between local Hilbert spaces of neighboring tetrahedra, and its energy agrees with the extrapolation of numerical exact diagonalization results of finite sized systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

A resonant valence bond spin liquid in the dilute limit of doped frustrated Mott insulators

Ideas about resonant valence bond liquids and spin-charge separation have led to key concepts in physics such as quantum spin liquids, emergent gauge symmetries, topological order, and fractionalisation. Despite extensive efforts to demonstrate the existence of a resonant valence bond phase in the Hubbard model that originally motivated the concept, a definitive realisation has yet to be achieved. Here we present a solution to this long-standing problem by uncovering a resonant valence bond phase exhibiting spin-charge separation in realistic Hamiltonians. We show analytically that this ground state emerges in the dilute-doping limit of a half-filled Mott insulator on corner-sharing tetrahedral lattices with frustrated hopping, in the absence of exchange interactions. We confirm numerically that the results extend to finite exchange interactions, finite-sized systems and finite dopant density. Although much attention has been devoted to the emergence of unconventional states from geometrically frustrated interactions, our work demonstrates that kinetic energy frustration in doped Mott insulators may be essential for stabilising robust, topologically ordered states in real materials.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Field-induced Multi-$\boldsymbol{\vec{Q}}$ States in a Pyrochlore Heisenberg Magnet

We construct exact ground states of the $J_1$-$J_{3b}$ classical Heisenberg model on the pyrochlore lattice in the presence of a magnetic field. They are non-coplanar multi-$\vec{Q}$ spin configurations with a large magnetic unit cell that generalize the previously found coplanar sublattice pairing states. Using linear spin wave theory, we show that entropy favors these multi-$\vec{Q}$ states at low temperatures in high magnetic fields. This is confirmed by Monte Carlo simulations, and a phase diagram is constructed. We also calculate the zero-temperature dynamical structure factor. Besides the usual Goldstone modes associated with the ordering $\vec{Q}$s, we find high intensity gapless modes at momenta where there are no Bragg peaks.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Sublattice Pairing in Pyrochlore Heisenberg Antiferromagnets

We argue that classical pyrochlore Heisenberg antiferromagnets with small further-neighbor couplings can order in a state where pairs of sublattices form antiparallel spirals. The spiral ordering wave vectors of the two pairs are in general different from each other, and are constrained by which sublattices are being paired. This sublattice pairing state generally breaks inversion and most rotation symmetries. Its existence depends on the antiferromagnetic nearest-neighbor coupling which favors the spins on each tetrahedron to sum to zero. To substantiate our argument, we extend the nematic bond theory; a diagrammatic large-$N_s$ method, to non-Bravais lattices, and we demonstrate that the predicted state is indeed realized at low temperatures in a large region of exchange coupling space. We also carry out a spin wave calculation which suggests that the sublattice pairing state is coplanar.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Emergence of quasiperiodic behavior in transport and hybridization properties of clean lattice systems

Quasiperiodic behaviour is known to occur in systems with enforced quasiperiodicity or randomness, in either the lattice structure or the potential, as well as in periodically driven systems. Here, we present instead a setting where quasiperiodic behaviour emerges in clean, non-driven lattice systems. We illustrate this through two examples of experimental relevance, namely an infinite tight-binding chain with a gated segment, and a hopping particle coupled to static Ising degrees of freedom. We show how the quasiperiodic behaviour manifests in the number of states that are localised by the geometry of the system, with corresponding effects on transport and hybridisation properties.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2022

Effects of critical correlations on quantum percolation in two dimensions

We analyze the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of a quantum particle coupled to local magnetic degrees of freedom that undergo a classical phase transition. Specifically, we consider a two-dimensional tight-binding model that interacts with a background of classical spins in thermal equilibrium, which are subject to Ising interactions and act as emergent, correlated disorder for the quantum particle. Particular attention is devoted to temperatures close to the ferromagnet-to-paramagnet transition. To capture the salient features of the classical transition, namely the effects of long-range correlations, we focus on the strong coupling limit, in which the model can be mapped onto a quantum percolation problem on spin clusters generated by the Ising model. By inspecting several dynamical probes such as energy level statistics, inverse participation ratios, and wave-packet dynamics, we provide evidence that the classical phase transition might induce a delocalization-localization transition in the quantum system at certain energies. We also identify further important features due to the presence of Ising correlations, such as the suppression of compact localized eigenstates.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2021

Arc-shaped structure factor in the $J_1$-$J_2$-$J_3$ classical Heisenberg model on the triangular lattice

We study the $J_1$-$J_2$-$J_3$ classical Heisenberg model with ferromagnetic $J_1$ on the triangular lattice using the nematic bond theory. For parameters where the momentum space coupling function $J_{\vec{q}}$ shows a discrete set of minima, we find that the system in general exhibits a single first-order phase transition between the high-temperature ring liquid and the low-temperature single-$\vec{q}$ planar spiral state. Close to where $J_{\vec{q}}$ shows a continuous minimum, we on the other hand find several phase transitions upon lowering the temperature. Most interestingly, we find an intermediate temperature "arc" regime, where the structure factor breaks rotational symmetry and shows a broad arc-shaped maximum. We map out the parameter region over which this arc regime exists and characterize details of its static structure factor over the same region.

cond-mat.str-el↗