arXiv subjects

J. Nasu

Publications and source records attributed to J. Nasu.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Three-dimensional zigzag correlations in the van der Waals Kitaev magnet RuBr$_3$

Ruthenium trihalides Ru$X_3$ ($X$ = Cl, Br, I) provide a tunable platform for Kitaev magnetism in two-dimensional van der Waals materials. Despite their similar crystal structures and zigzag antiferromagnetic order, RuBr$_3$ exhibits a higher N\'eel temperature ($T_N$) than RuCl$_3$, suggesting their distinct proximity to the Kitaev quantum spin liquid phase. Using Ru $L_3$-edge resonant x-ray scattering, we show that, while the long-range zigzag order in RuBr$_3$ disappears at $T_N$, the zigzag correlations that persist well above $T_N$ show a pronounced spectral weight redistribution along the interlayer direction. These results suggest that the enhanced interlayer magnetic interactions driven by the extended Br 4$p$ orbitals stabilize three-dimensional zigzag correlations in RuBr$_3$.

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arXiv2023

Majorana-fermion origin of the planar thermal Hall effect in the Kitaev magnet $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$

The field-induced quantum disordered state of layered honeycomb magnet $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ is a prime candidate for Kitaev spin liquids hosting Majorana fermions and non-Abelian anyons. Recent observations of anomalous planar thermal Hall effect demonstrate a topological edge mode, but whether it originates from Majorana fermions or bosonic magnons remains controversial. Here we distinguish these origins from low-temperature measurements of high-resolution specific heat and thermal Hall conductivity with rotating in-plane fields. In the honeycomb bond direction, a distinct closure of the low-energy bulk gap is observed concomitantly with the sign reversal of the Hall effect. General discussions of topological bands show that this is the hallmark of an angle-rotation-induced topological transition of fermions, providing conclusive evidence for the Majorana-fermion origin of the thermal Hall effect in $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$.

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arXiv2022

Field-direction Dependence of Majorana-mediated Spin Transport

We study the field-direction dependence of the Majorana-mediated spin transport in the Kitaev clusters with zigzag and armchair edges, applying a static magnetic field to one of the edges and a magnetic pulsed field to the other edges. By means of the exact diagonalization method, we calculate the time-evolution of the spin moments in both edge regions to clarify how the directions of two fields and shape of the edges affect the Majorana-mediated spin transport.

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arXiv2022

Evidence for the first-order topological phase transition in a Kitaev spin liquid candidate $\alpha$-RuCl$ _3$

The Kitaev quantum spin liquid (QSL) on the two-dimensional honeycomb lattice epitomizes an entangled topological state, where the spins fractionalize into Majorana fermions. This state has aroused tremendous interest because it harbors non-Abelian anyon excitations. The half-integer quantized thermal Hall (HIQTH) conductance observed in $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ is a key signature of these excitations. However, the fate of this topologically nontrivial state at intense fields remains largely elusive. Here, we report the thermal conductivity $\kappa$ and specific heat $C$ of $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ with in-plane magnetic fields $H$. For the field direction perpendicular to the Ru-Ru bond, where the HIQTH effect is observed, we find a discontinuous jump in $\kappa(H)$ and a peak anomaly in $C(H)$ at $\mu_0H^*\approx11$\,T, evidencing a weak first-order phase transition. Remarkably, the HIQTH effect vanishes close to $H^*$. Furthermore, we find that the spin-fractionalization feature is retained well above $H^\ast$. These imply the emergence of the phase transition that separates two QSL phases with distinct topological properties.

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arXiv2020

Half-integer quantized anomalous thermal Hall effect in the Kitaev material $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$

Heat transport mediated by Majorana edge modes in a magnetic insulator leads to a half-integer thermal quantum Hall conductance, which has recently been reported for the two-dimensional honeycomb material $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$. While the conventional electronic Hall effect requires a perpendicular magnetic field, we find that this is not the case in $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$. Strikingly, the thermal Hall plateau appears even for a magnetic field with no out-of-plane components. The field-angular variation of the quantized thermal Hall conductance has the same sign structure of the topological Chern number, which is either $\pm$1, as the Majorana band structure of the pure Kitaev spin liquid. This observation of a half-integer anomalous thermal Hall effect firmly establishes that the Kitaev interaction is primarily responsible and that the non-Abelian topological order associated with fractionalization of the local magnetic moments persists even in the presence of non-Kitaev interactions in $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$.

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arXiv2018

Two-step gap opening across the quantum critical point in a Kitaev honeycomb magnet

Quantum spin liquid involves fractionalized quasipariticles such as spinons and visons. They are expressed as itinerant Majorana fermions and $Z_2$ fluxes in the Kitaev model with bond-dependent exchange interactions on a honeycomb spin lattice. The observation has recently attracted attention for a candidate material $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$, showing spin liquid behaviour induced by a magnetic field. Since the observable spin excitation is inherently composed of the two quasiparticles, which further admix each other by setting in the magnetic field as well as non-Kitaev interactions, their individual identification remains challenging. Here we report an emergent low-lying spin excitation through nuclear magnetic and quadrupole resonance measurements down to $\sim 0.4$ K corresponding to $1/500$ of the exchange energy under the finely tuned magnetic field across the quantum critical point. We determined the critical behaviour of low-lying excitations and found evolution of two kinds of the spin gap at high fields. The two excitations exhibit repulsive magnetic field dependence, suggesting anti-crossing due to the hybridization between fractionalized quasiparticles.

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arXiv2018

Magnetic properties in the metallic magnets with large anisotropy

We study low temperature properties in the metallic magnets, considering the itinerant electron mediated ferromagnetism. Applying the Monte Carlo simulations to the extended double exchange model, we discuss reorientation phase transition and anisotropy field for the metallic magnets.

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arXiv2018

Majorana quantization and half-integer thermal quantum Hall effect in a Kitaev spin liquid

The quantum Hall effect (QHE) in two-dimensional (2D) electron gases, which is one of the most striking phenomena in condensed matter physics, involves the topologically protected dissipationless charge current flow along the edges of the sample. Integer or fractional electrical conductance are measured in units of $e^2/2\pi\hbar$, which is associated with edge currents of electrons or quasiparticles with fractional charges, respectively. Here we discover a novel type of quantization of the Hall effect in an insulating 2D quantum magnet. In $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$ with dominant Kitaev interaction on 2D honeycomb lattice, the application of a parallel magnetic field destroys the long-range magnetic order, leading to a field-induced quantum spin liquid (QSL) ground state with massive entanglement of local spins. In the low-temperature regime of the QSL state, we report that the 2D thermal Hall conductance $\kappa_{xy}^{2D}$ reaches a quantum plateau as a function of applied magnetic field. $\kappa_{xy}^{2D}/T$ attains a quantization value of $(\pi/12)(k_B^2/\hbar)$, which is exactly half of $\kappa_{xy}^{2D}/T$ in the integer QHE. This half-integer thermal Hall conductance observed in a bulk material is a direct signature of topologically protected chiral edge currents of charge neutral Majorana fermions, particles that are their own antiparticles, which possess half degrees of freedom of conventional fermions. These signatures demonstrate the fractionalization of spins into itinerant Majorana fermions and $Z_2$ fluxes predicted in a Kitaev QSL. Above a critical magnetic field, the quantization disappears and $\kappa_{xy}^{2D}/T$ goes to zero rapidly, indicating a topological quantum phase transition between the states with and without chiral Majorana edge modes. Emergent Majorana fermions in a quantum magnet are expected to have a major impact on strongly correlated topological quantum matter.

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arXiv2018

Charge Kondo Effect and Superconductivity in the Falikov-Kimball model with the Pair Hopping

We study the Falikov-Kimball model with the pair hopping between the conduction and localized bands to discuss how the charge Kondo effect is realized. By combining dynamical mean-field theory with the continuous time quantum Monte Carlo method, we clarify that the charge Kondo state survives even at zero temperature and this competes with the charge ordered and s-wave superconducting states. The role of the interorbital repulsion for the superconducting state is also addressed.

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arXiv2017

Unusual thermal Hall effect in a Kitaev spin liquid candidate $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$

The Kitaev quantum spin liquid displays the fractionalization of quantum spins into Majorana fermions. The emergent Majorana edge current is predicted to manifest itself in the form of a finite thermal Hall effect, a feature commonly discussed in topological superconductors. Here we report on thermal Hall conductivity $\kappa_{xy}$ measurements in $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$, a candidate Kitaev magnet with the two-dimensional honeycomb lattice. In a spin-liquid (Kitaev paramagnetic) state below the temperature characterized by the Kitaev interaction $J_K/k_B \sim 80$ K, positive $\kappa_{xy}$ develops gradually upon cooling, demonstrating the presence of highly unusual itinerant excitations. Although the zero-temperature property is masked by the magnetic ordering at $T_N=7$ K, the sign, magnitude, and $T$-dependence of $\kappa_{xy}/T$ at intermediate temperatures follows the predicted trend of the itinerant Majorana excitations.

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arXiv2016

Fermionic response from fractionalization in an insulating two-dimensional magnet

Conventionally ordered magnets possess bosonic elementary excitations, called magnons. By contrast, no magnetic insulators in more than one dimension are known whose excitations are not bosons but fermions. Theoretically, some quantum spin liquids (QSLs) -- new topological phases which can occur when quantum fluctuations preclude an ordered state -- are known to exhibit Majorana fermions as quasiparticles arising from fractionalization of spins. Alas, despite much searching, their experimental observation remains elusive. Here, we show that fermionic excitations are remarkably directly evident in experimental Raman scattering data across a broad energy and temperature range in the two-dimensional material $α$-RuCl$_3$. This shows the importance of magnetic materials as hosts of Majorana fermions. In turn, this first systematic evaluation of the dynamics of a QSL at finite temperature emphasizes the role of excited states for detecting such exotic properties associated with otherwise hard-to-identify topological QSLs.

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arXiv2014

Absence of Jahn-Teller transition in the hexagonal Ba3CuSb2O9 single crystal

We present a comprehensive structural study on perovskite-type 6H-Ba3CuSb2O9, which exhibits a spin-orbital short-range ordering on a honeycomb-based lattice. By combining synchrotron x-ray diffraction, electron spin resonance, ultrasound measurement and Raman spectroscopy, we found that the static Jahn-Teller distortion is absent down to the lowest temperature in the present material, indicating orbital ordering is strongly suppressed. We discuss such an unusual state is realized with the help of spin degree of freedom, leading to a spin-orbital entangled liquid state.

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arXiv2014

Finite-Temperature Phase Transition to a Quantum Spin Liquid in a Three-Dimensional Kitaev Model on a Hyperhoneycomb Lattice

We present numerical evidence for the presence of a finite-temperature ($T$) phase transition separating paramagnet and quantum spin liquid in a three-dimensional variant of the Kitaev model defined on a hyperhoneycomb lattice in the limit of strong anisotropy; the model is mapped onto an effective Ising-type model, where elementary excitations consist of closed loops of flipped Ising-type variables. Analyzing this effective model by Monte Carlo simulation, we find a phase transition from quantum spin liquid to paramagnet at a finite critical temperature $T_c$. We also compute the magnetic properties in terms of the original quantum spins. We find that the magnetic susceptibility exhibits a broad hump above $T_c$, while it obeys the Curie law at high $T$ and approaches a nonzero Van Vleck-type constant at low $T$. Although the susceptibility changes continuously at $T_c$, its $T$ derivative shows critical divergence at $T_c$. We also clarify that the dynamical spin correlation function is momentum independent but shows quantized peaks corresponding to the discretized excitations. Although the phase transition accompanies no apparent symmetry breaking in terms of the Ising-type variables as well as the original quantum spins, we characterize it from a topological viewpoint. We find that, by defining the flux density for loops of the Ising-type variables, the transition is interpreted as the one occurring from the zero-flux quantum spin liquid to the nonzero-flux paramagnet; the latter has a Coulombic nature due to the local constraints. The role of global constraints on the Ising-type variables is examined in comparison with the results in the two-dimensional loop model. A correspondence of our model to the Ising model on a diamond lattice is also discussed. A possible relevance of our results to the recently-discovered hyperhoneycomb compound, $β$-Li$_2$IrO$_3$, is mentioned.

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arXiv2011

Orbital Compass Model as an Itinerant Electron System

Two-dimensional orbital compass model is studied as an interacting itinerant electron model. A Hubbard-type tight-binding model, from which the orbital compass model is derived in the strong coupling limit, is identified. This model is analyzed by the random-phase approximation (RPA) and the self-consistent RPA methods from the weak coupling. Anisotropy for the orbital fluctuation in the momentum space is qualitatively changed by the on-site Coulomb interaction. This result is explained by the fact that the dominant fluctuation is changed from the intra-band nesting to the inter-band one by increasing the interaction.

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arXiv2008

Doubly degenerate orbital system in honeycomb lattice: implication of orbital state in layered iron oxide

We study a doubly-degenerate orbital model on a honeycomb attice. This is a model for orbital states in multiferroic layered iron oxides. The classical and quantum models are analyzed by spin-wave approximation, Monte-Carlo simulation and Lanczos method. A macroscopic number of degeneracy exists in the classical ground state. In the classical model, a peak in the specific heat appears at a temperature which is much lower than the mean-field ordering one. Below this temperature, angle of orbital pseudo-spin is fixed, but conventional orbital orders are not suggested. The degeneracy in the ground state is partially lifted by thermal fluctuation. We suggest a role of zero-dimensional fluctuation in hexagons on a low-temperature orbital structure. Lifting of the degeneracy also occurs at zero temperature due to the quantum zero-point fluctuation. We show that the ground-state wave function is well represented by a linear combination of the states where a honeycomb lattice is covered by nearest-neighboring pairs of orbitals with the minimum bond energy.

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arXiv2007

Theory of Layered Iron Oxide on Frustrated Geometry: Electric Polarization, Magnetoelectric Effect and Orbital State

A layered iron oxide \rfeo ($R$: rare-earth elements) is an exotic dielectric material with charge-order (CO) driven electric polarization and magnetoelectric effect caused by spin-charge coupling. In this paper, a theory of electronic structure and dielectric property in \rfeo is presented. Charge frustration in paired-triangular lattices allows a charge imbalance without inversion symmetry. Spin frustration induces reinforcement of this polar CO by a magnetic ordering. We also analyze an orbital model for the Fe ion which does not show a conventional long-range order.

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