arXiv subjects

Cristian D. Batista

Publications and source records attributed to Cristian D. Batista.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Semiclassical dynamics of spin density waves

We present a theoretical framework for equilibrium and nonequilibrium dynamical simulation of quantum states with spin-density-wave (SDW) order. Within a semiclassical adiabatic approximation that retains electron degrees of freedom, we demonstrate that the SDW order parameter obeys a generalized Landau-Lifshitz equation. With the aid of an enhanced kernel polynomial method, our linear-scaling quantum Landau-Lifshitz dynamics (QLLD) method enables dynamical SDW simulations with $N \simeq 10^5$ lattice sites. Our real-space formulation can be used to compute dynamical responses, such as dynamical structure factor, of complex and even inhomogeneous SDW configurations at zero or finite temperatures. Applying the QLLD to study the relaxation of a noncoplanar topological SDW under the excitation of a short pulse, we further demonstrate the crucial role of spatial correlations and fluctuations in the SDW dynamics.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Spin-orbit interaction driven dimerization in one dimensional frustrated magnets

We study the effect of spin-orbit interaction on one-dimensional U(1)-invariant frustrated magnets with dominant critical nematic fluctuations. The spin-orbit coupling explicitly breaks the U(1) symmetry of arbitrary global spin rotations about the high-symmetry axis down to $Z_2$ (invariance under a $π$-rotation). Given that the nematic order parameter is invariant under a $π$-rotation, it is relevant to ask if other discrete symmetries can be spontaneously broken. Here we demonstrate that the spin-orbit coupling induces a bond density wave that spontaneously breaks the translational symmetry and opens a gap in the excitation spectrum.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Chiral liquid phase of simple quantum magnets

We study a $T=0$ quantum phase transition between a quantum paramagnetic state and a magnetically ordered state for a spin $S=1$ XXZ Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a two-dimensional triangular lattice. The transition is induced by an easy plane single-ion anisotropy $D$. At the mean-field level, the system undergoes a direct transition at a critical $D = D_c$ between a paramagnetic state at $D > D_c$ and an ordered state with broken U(1) symmetry at $D < D_c$. We show that beyond mean field the phase diagram is very different and includes an intermediate, partially ordered chiral liquid phase. Specifically, we find that inside the paramagnetic phase the Ising ($J_z$) component of the Heisenberg exchange binds magnons into a two-particle bound state with zero total momentum and spin. This bound state condenses at $D > D_c$, before single-particle excitations become unstable, and gives rise to a chiral liquid phase, which spontaneously breaks spatial inversion symmetry, but leaves the spin-rotational U(1) and time-reversal symmetries intact. This chiral liquid phase is characterized by a finite vector chirality without long range dipolar magnetic order. In our analytical treatment, the chiral phase appears for arbitrarily small $J_z$ because the magnon-magnon attraction becomes singular near the single-magnon condensation transition. This phase exists in a finite range of $D$ and transforms into the magnetically ordered state at some $D<D_c$. We corroborate our analytic treatment with numerical density matrix renormalization group calculations.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2016

Resistivity Minimum in Highly Frustrated Itinerant Magnets

We study the transport properties of frustrated itinerant magnets comprising localized {\it classical} moments, which interact via exchange with the conduction electrons. Strong frustration stabilizes a liquidlike spin state, which extends down to temperatures well below the effective Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida interaction scale. The crossover into this state is characterized by spin structure factor enhancement at wave vectors smaller than twice the Fermi wave vector magnitude. The corresponding enhancement of electron scattering generates a resistivity upturn at decreasing temperatures.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2016

Vortices, skyrmions, and chirality waves in frustrated Mott insulators with a quenched periodic array of impurities

Finite-${\mathbf Q}$ magnetic instabilities are rather common in frustrated magnets. When the magnetic susceptibility is maximized at multiple-${\mathbf Q}$ vectors related through lattice symmetry operations, exotic magnetic orderings such as vortex and skyrmion crystals may follow. Here we show that a periodic array of nonmagnetic impurities, which can be realized through charge density wave ordering, leads to a rich phase diagram featuring a plethora of chiral magnetic phases, especially when there is a simple relation between the reciprocal vectors of the impurity superlattice and the magnetic ${\mathbf Q}$-vectors. We also investigate the effect of changing the impurity concentration or disturbing the impurity array with small quenched randomness. Alternative realizations of impurity superlattices are briefly discussed.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2016

Bubble and Skyrmion Crystals in Frustrated Magnets with Easy-Axis Anisotropy

We clarify the conditions for the emergence of multiple-${\bf Q}$ structures out of lattice and easy-axis spin anisotropy in frustrated magnets. By considering magnets whose exchange interaction has multiple global minima in momentum space, we find that both types of anisotropy stabilize triple-${\bf Q}$ orderings. Moderate anisotropy leads to a magnetic field-induced skyrmion crystal, which evolves into a bubble crystal for increasing spatial or spin anisotropy. The bubble crystal exhibits a quasi-continuous (devil's staircase) temperature dependent ordering wave-vector, characteristic of the competition between frustrated exchange and strong easy-axis anisotropy.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Vortex Crystals with Chiral Stripes in Itinerant Magnets

We study noncoplanar magnetic ordering in frustrated itinerant magnets. For a family of Kondo square lattice models with classical local moments, we find that a double-$Q$ noncoplanar vortex crystal has lower energy than the single-$Q$ helical order expected from the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida interaction whenever the lattice symmetry dictates four global maxima in the bare magnetic susceptibility. By expanding in the small Kondo exchange and the degree of noncoplanarity, we demonstrate that this noncoplanar state arises from a Fermi surface instability, and it is generic for a wide range of electron filling fractions whenever the two ordering wave vectors connect independent sections of the Fermi surface.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2015

Mott transition in a metallic liquid - Gutzwiller molecular dynamics simulations

We present a formulation of quantum molecular dynamics that includes electron correlation effects via the Gutzwiller method. Our new scheme enables the study of the dynamical behavior of atoms and molecules with strong electron interactions. The Gutzwiller approach goes beyond the conventional mean-field treatment of the intra-atomic electron repulsion and captures crucial correlation effects such as band narrowing and electron localization. We use Gutzwiller quantum molecular dynamics to investigate the Mott transition in the liquid phase of a single-band metal and uncover intriguing structural and transport properties of the atoms.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2015

Three-Dimensional Crystallization of Vortex Strings in Frustrated Quantum Magnets

We demonstrate that frustrated exchange interactions can produce exotic 3D crystals of vortex strings near the saturation field (H=Hsat) of body- and face-centered cubic Mott insulators. The combination of cubic symmetry and frustration leads to a magnon spectrum of the fully polarized spin state (H>Hsat) with degenerate minima at multiple noncoplanar Q vectors. This spectrum becomes gapless at the quantum critical point H=Hsat and the magnetic ordering below Hsat can be formally described as a condensate of a dilute gas of bosons. By expanding in the lattice gas parameter, we find that different vortex crystals span sizable regions of the phase diagrams for isotropic exchange and are further stabilized by symmetric exchange anisotropy.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2015

Topological defects as relics of emergent continuous symmetry and Higgs condensation of disorder in ferroelectrics

Lars Onsager and Richard Feynman envisioned that the three-dimensional (3D) superfluid-to-normal $λ$ transition in $^{4}$He occurs through the proliferation of vortices. This process should hold for every phase transition in the same universality class. The role of topological defects in symmetry-breaking phase transitions has become a prime topic in cosmology and high-temperature superconductivity, even though direct imaging of these defects is challenging. Here we show that the U(1) continuous symmetry that emerges at the ferroelectric critical point of multiferroic hexagonal manganites leads to a similar proliferation of vortices. Moreover, the disorder field (vortices) is coupled to an emergent U(1) gauge field, which becomes massive by means of the Higgs mechanism when vortices condense (span the whole system) upon heating above the ferroelectric transition temperature. Direct imaging of the vortex network in hexagonal manganites offers unique experimental access to this dual description of the ferroelectric transition, while enabling tests of the Kibble-Zurek mechanism.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2015

Skyrmion fractionalization and merons in chiral magnets with easy-plane anisotropy

We study the equilibrium phase diagram of ultrathin chiral magnets with easy-plane anisotropy $A$. The vast triangular skyrmion lattice phase that is stabilized by an external magnetic field evolves continuously as a function of increasing $A$ into a regime in which nearest-neighbor skyrmions start overlapping with each other. This overlap leads to a continuous reduction of the skyrmion number from its quantized value $Q=1$ and to the emergence of antivortices at the center of the triangles formed by nearest-neighbor skyrmions. The antivortices also carry a small "skyrmion number" $Q_A \ll 1$ that grows as a function of increasing $A$. The system undergoes a first order phase transition into a square vortex-antivortex lattice at a critical value of $A$. Finally, a canted ferromagnetic state becomes stable through another first order transition for a large enough anisotropy $A$. Interestingly enough, this first order transition is accompanied by {\it metastable} meron solutions.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2014

Quantum Hall ice

We show that the chiral kagome ice manifold exhibits an anomalous integer quantum Hall effect (IQHE) when coupled to itinerant electrons. Although electron-mediated interactions select a magnetically ordered ground state, the full ice manifold can coexist with the IQHE over a range of finite temperatures. The degenerate ice states provide a natural realization of power-law correlated flux disorder, for which the spectral gap of the system remains robust. The quantized (up to exponentially small finite-temperature corrections) Hall conductance persists over a wide range of electron densities due to the disorder-induced localization of electronic states.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Anyonic Liquids in Nearly Saturated Spin Chains

Most Heisenberg-like spin chains flow to a universal free-fermion fixed point near the magnetic-field induced saturation point. Here we show that an exotic fixed point, characterized by two species of low-energy excitations with mutual anyonic statistics, may also emerge in such spin chains if the dispersion relation has two minima. By using bosonization, two-magnon exact calculations, and numerical density-matrix-renormalization-group, we demonstrate the existence of this anyonic-liquid fixed point in an XXZ spin chain with up to second neighbor interactions. We also identify a range of microscopic parameters, which support this phase.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

Spin-orbit coupling and electronic charge effects in Mott insulators

We derive the effective charge- and current-density operators for the strong-coupling limit of a single-band Mott insulator in the presence of spin-orbit coupling and show that the spin-orbit contribution to the effective charge density leads to novel mechanisms for multiferroic behavior. In some sense, these mechanisms are the electronic counterpart of the ionic-based mechanisms, which have been proposed for explaining the electric polarization induced by spiral spin orderings. The new electronic mechanisms are illustrated by considering cycloidal and proper screw magnetic orderings on sawtooth and kagome lattices. As for the isotropic case, geometric frustration is crucial for achieving this purely electronic coupling between spin and charge degrees of freedom.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

Magnetic field induced phases in anisotropic triangular antiferromagnets: application to $\mathrm{CuCrO_2}$

We introduce a minimal spin model for describing the magnetic properties of $\mathrm{CuCrO_2}$. Our Monte Carlo simulations of this model reveal a rich magnetic field induced phase diagram, which explains the measured field dependence of the electric polarization. The sequence of phase transitions between different mutiferroic states arises from a subtle interplay between spatial and spin anisotropy, magnetic frustration and thermal fluctuations. Our calculations are compared to new measurements up to 92 T.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2014

LDA+DMFT Approach to Magnetocrystalline Anisotropy of Strong Magnets

The new challenges posed by the need of finding strong rare-earth free magnets demand methods that can predict magnetization and magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy (MAE). We argue that correlated electron effects, which are normally underestimated in band structure calculations, play a crucial role in the development of the orbital component of the magnetic moments. Because magnetic anisotropy arises from this orbital component, the ability to include correlation effects has profound consequences on our predictive power of the MAE of strong magnets. Here we show that incorporating the local effects of electronic correlations with dynamical mean-field theory provides reliable estimates of the orbital moment, the mass enhancement and the MAE of YCo5.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

AC current generation in chiral magnetic insulators and skyrmion motion induced by the spin Seebeck effect

We show that a temperature gradient induces an ac electric current in multiferroic insulators when the sample is embedded in a circuit. We also show that a thermal gradient can be used to move magnetic skyrmions in insulating chiral magnets: the induced magnon flow from the hot to the cold region drives the skyrmions in the opposite direction via a magnonic spin transfer torque. Both results are combined to compute the effect of skyrmion motion on the ac current generation and demonstrate that skyrmions in insulators are a promising route for spin caloritronics applications.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2014

Stiffness from Disorder in Triangular-Lattice Ising Thin Films

We study the triangular lattice Ising model with a finite number of vertically stacked layers and demonstrate a low temperature reentrance of two Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transitions, which results in an extended disordered regime down to $T=0$. Numerical results are complemented with the derivation of an effective low-temperature dimer theory. Contrary to order by disorder, we present a new scenario for fluctuation-induced ordering in frustrated spin systems. While short-range spin-spin correlations are enhanced by fluctuations, quasi-long-range ordering is precluded at low enough temperatures by proliferation of topological defects.

cond-mat.str-el↗