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Jeroen van den Brink

Publications and source records attributed to Jeroen van den Brink.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Coexistence of Altermagnetic and Compensated Ferrimagnetic Motifs in a Noncollinear Multiferroic

Collinear compensated magnets with nonrelativistic spin splitting comprise altermagnets (ALMs), whose rotation- or mirror-related opposite-spin sublattices produce momentum-selective splitting that vanishes at $Γ$, and compensated ferrimagnets (CFIMs), whose symmetry-inequivalent sublattices allow splitting throughout the Brillouin zone, including at $Γ$. Here, we show that the coplanar noncollinear magnetic state of multiferroic boracite Ni$_3$B$_7$O$_{13}$Cl hosts both motifs on distinct Ni sublattices in real space. The electronic structure and spin texture exhibit coexisting $d$-wave-like and $s$-wave-like spin-polarization components associated with the ALM and CFIM motifs, respectively. Opposite ferroelectric states exhibit reversed band-resolved spin polarizations, indicating magnetoelectric coupling, and sign reversals of linear shift and circular injection currents.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2026

Magnetic-Order-Driven Nonlinear Photocurrents in PT-Broken Antiferromagnetic MnS2 and Altermagnetic MnSe2

Nonlinear photocurrent responses generally require inversion-symmetry breaking, but its origin can be magnetic rather than structural. In this study, we investigate the bulk photovoltaic effect in antiferromagnetic MnS2 and altermagnetic MnSe2, two pyrite-type semiconductors whose magnetic ordering breaks inversion symmetry P and its combination with time reversal PT, while the accompanying lattice distortion is minute. We calculate the shift current (SC) and injection current (IC) responses under linearly and circularly polarized light with and without spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and identify their symmetry-allowed tensor components using the corresponding magnetic and spin point groups, respectively. Linear SC and circular IC are symmetry-allowed in both MnS2 and MnSe2 irrespective of SOC, whereas linear IC and circular SC remain forbidden in MnS2 but become allowed in MnSe2 only when SOC is included. These results highlight the importance of SOC and the corresponding MPG analysis for a complete description of nonlinear charge photocurrents in magnetic materials. Beyond charge responses, MnSe2 supports linear shift and circular injection spin photocurrents in the nonrelativistic limit, whereas all spin-photocurrent responses are forbidden in MnS2. Our findings therefore establish inversion symmetry breaking induced by compensated magnetic order as a route to generating and controlling nonlinear photocurrents.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2026

Frustration-induced multiferroicity in hauerite MnS2

Pyrite-type mineral hauerite MnS$_2$ is a magnetic insulator with localized $S=\frac52$ moments. Below 48 K, it develops a collinear antiferromagnetic order, accompanied by unit-cell doubling and breaking the inversion symmetry. We demonstrate that the latter gives rise to a ferroelectric polarization of up to 360 $μ$C/m$^2$ rendering MnS$_2$ a type-II multiferroic. Microscopically, the electronic polarization originates from S$_2$ dimers that acquire a dipole moment induced by the frustrated magnetic ordering of neighboring Mn sites. We show that time-reversal symmetry leaves ferroelectric domains intact, and that domain switching necessitates overcoming a high energy barrier set by the magnetic exchange energy scale.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2026

Surface-bulk hybridization enhances the Berry curvature dipole in GaAs(110)

Symmetry breaking at crystalline boundaries can enable electronic responses that are forbidden in the bulk. Here, we investigate the Berry curvature dipole (BCD) at GaAs(110) surfaces using first-principles calculations. While the BCD vanishes in bulk GaAs due to symmetry constraints, the reduced surface symmetry permits a finite dipole. We show that surface relaxation promotes hybridization between bulk and surface states, which strongly influences the surface BCD. Specifically, in unrelaxed slabs, the BCD arises predominantly from interband coupling among exponentially localized surface states lying within the projected bulk band gap. Surface relaxation shifts these states into the energy range of the bulk continuum, transforming them into surface resonances and promoting hybridization with bulk-like states. This hybridization generates pronounced Berry-curvature hot spots, resulting in an overall enhancement of the BCD. Our results highlight the importance of surface relaxation for accurately describing surface--bulk hybridization, which in turn plays a key role in Berry-curvature-driven responses at crystalline boundaries.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2026

Propagation and localization of spin excitations at altermagnetic domain walls

Altermagnets (A$\ell$Ms) are spin-compensated materials in which opposite-spin sublattices are connected by a symmetry that causes a spin splitting in their elementary excitations. As there is a strong effect of altermagnetism on domain wall properties, it is quite natural to also expect an enrichment of the physics of magnetic excitations at A$\ell$M domain walls. Here, we consider the propagation of spin eigen-excitations along domain walls in easy-axial $d$-wave A$\ell$Ms. Investigating the presence of bound states localized on a domain wall, we find that the effect of the A$\ell$M on the bound states strongly depends on the orientation of the domain wall relative to the crystallographic directions. If the domain wall is oriented along a nodal direction [100] or [010], A$\ell$M does not change the number of bound states; however, it leads to a nonlinear dispersion and a tilt of the wavefront. The effect of A$\ell$M is strongest when the domain wall is oriented along the directions [110] or [$\bar{1}$10], i.e., along the directions of the strongest A$\ell$M splitting in the magnon spectrum. In this case, (i) the additional gapped bound states appear, (ii) degeneracy of the eigenstates with respect to their polarization (right-handed or left-handed precession of the N{é}el vector) is removed, and (iii) the localization area of the bound states strongly depends on the eigenfrequency. The latter may lead to strong localization of the bound state at the domain wall. We further consider the influence of a static magnetic field that is applied along the easy axis, and find that the magnetic field induces an asymmetry between the localization regions on opposite sides of the domain wall and sets an upper limit on the absolute value of the propagating eigenstate's wave vector.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2026

Emergent Surface Kondo Flat Band Driven by Competing Interactions in a Topological Ferromagnet

A central goal of modern condensed matter physics is to uncover new quantum states of matter arising from the intertwined effects of strong electron correlations, magnetism, and band topology. Heavy-fermion phases, generated by Kondo interactions, represent one of the most remarkable manifestations of electronic correlations, and topological heavy-fermion states have been identified in several non-magnetic materials. Yet, the consequences of their competition with magnetic order have remained largely unexplored. Here, we reveal a new phenomenon: the spontaneous spatial separation of correlated quantum phases. By showing that magnetism can drive distinct strongly correlated electronic states to coexist in different regions of a single material, our work establishes a previously unknown mechanism for organizing quantum matter and opens a new direction in the study of correlated topological systems. Using \emph{bulk-sensitive} probes, we show that UAsS crystals are, in the bulk, metallic ferromagnets with only moderate correlation-driven band renormalizations. First-principles calculations reveal a topological electronic structure hosting both nodal lines and Weyl points, pointing to a rich underlying topology. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements are consistent with these predictions, resolving the nodal lines and Weyl crossings. In striking contrast, \emph{surface-sensitive} ARPES and scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS) measurements reveal a pronounced flat band pinned at the Fermi level, accompanied by a sharp resonance -- hallmarks of an emergent, strongly correlated Kondo state not captured by first-principles calculations.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2026

Tunable Chern superconductivity of PtBi$_2$ in slab geometry

Recent experiments indicate that PtBi$_2$ is a Weyl semimetal whose surfaces become topological superconductors with i-wave gap symmetry at low temperature. The bulk hosts 12 Weyl cones while in the superconducting state each of the two surfaces hosts in addition 6 Majorana cones. We study a simplified model in a slab geometry, where the finite thickness gaps out the bulk Weyl cones and leaves the surface Majorana cones as the low-energy degrees of freedom. We identify two competing mechanisms that gap these cones: inter-cone hybridization opens a trivial gap, whereas a Zeeman field opens a nontrivial one. In the nontrivial regime, chiral Majorana edge modes connect the gapped cones. We determine their wavefunction profile and relate it to the momentum-space distribution of the cones. Mapping out the phase diagram, we find both trivial and nontrivial regions in the quasi-two-dimensional limit.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2026

Nonlinear Magnon Magnetic Moment Transport in Triangular-Lattice f-Wave Antialtermagnets

We study the spin excitations in the frustrated coplanar 120-degree ground state of the triangular-lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet and demonstrate that they carry a magnetic moment perpendicular to the plane in which the spins order, despite the ground-state sublattice moments having no out-of-plane component. The symmetry of the momentum dependence of the magnetic moment and energy of the magnons renders the system an odd-parity f-wave magnet. Extending this model to a stack of antiferromagnetically coupled triangular layers provides a realization of magnons in a three-dimensional f-wave antialtermagnet. We show that nonlinear thermal transport effects of magnons, such as Edelstein and spin-splitter effects, provide clear experimental signatures of magnons in f-wave antialtermagnets.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2026

Synthetic horizons in an atomic chain: Horizon-induced effects and connections to quantum Hall systems

We investigate the sine model, a one-dimensional tight-binding Hamiltonian with position-dependent sinusoidal hopping, and demonstrate the formation of synthetic horizons where electronic wave packets exhibit exponential slowdown. Interestingly, using the exact transformation between this model and the Harper equation, we find that analogous semiclassical horizons can emerge in a quantum Hall setup within the Harper-equation representation and at half-filling for specific values of the magnetic flux. The Harper equation describes the eigenstates of a square-lattice tight-binding model subjected to a perpendicular magnetic field, as a family of one-dimensional problems parametrized by a conserved transverse quasi-momentum. We demonstrate the correspondence between the sine and Harper models by comparing their semiclassical phase-space portraits and by numerically studying wave-packet dynamics in both models. Furthermore, by applying sudden quenches to the sine model's hopping profile, we observe the emergence of states with an effective thermal Fermi-Dirac distribution characterized by a corresponding Unruh temperature. Our numerical calculations reveal a non-universal behavior of this temperature, suggesting the involvement of mechanisms beyond a simple low-energy description.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2026

Magnetically tunable symmetry-enforced nodal lines producing huge anomalous Hall conductivity in altermagnetic $α$-MnTe

Altermagnetic $α$-MnTe exhibits huge anomalous Hall conductivity (AHC) up to room-temperature together with weak ferromagnetism arising from spin and orbital polarizations. We clarify the origin of the large value of the AHC by identifying two sets of distinct symmetry-enforced nodal lines in the valence bands with Mn character, located at $k_z=0$ and $k_z=\fracπ{c}$, protected by mirror symmetry $M_z$ and glide symmetry $G_z = \{M_z\,|\,0,0,\tfrac{c}{2}\}$, respectively. Both nodal lines are energy-dependent with an approximate C$_6$ symmetry, which is reduced to an exact C$_2$ symmetry due to the presence of the Néel vector. The highest valence band exhibits a Mexican-hat dispersion, whereas the second-highest valence band exhibits an inverted Mexican-hat dispersion, with nodal lines at the crossing between the two bands. Within first-principles accuracy, we demonstrate that these nodal lines give rise to the large AHC observed experimentally and exhibit a strong interplay with the weak ferromagnetism. We further show that even a small spin canting strongly modifies the nodal lines and the AHC, making them both magnetically tunable. By disentangling the altermagnetic and ferromagnetic contributions to the AHC, the altermagnetic contribution dominates at small canting angles, while the ferromagnetic contribution becomes sizeable for larger values. Using linear dichroism in angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we show a signature of the nodal line at the border of the Brillouin zone.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2026

Magnetic-Field-Driven Dimensional Reduction in a Quantum Antiferromagnet

Low dimensionality enhances quantum fluctuations, triggering novel states of quantum matter to emerge. In real materials, low dimensionality usually arises from spatially strongly anisotropic couplings. Here, we demonstrate a different mechanism: in two-dimensional systems with coupled alternating ferromagnetic (FM) and antiferromagnetic (AFM) spin-$1/2$ chains, an applied magnetic field may drive a dimensional reduction. Under magnetic field, the FM chains polarize and stiffen, suppressing the propagation of transverse AFM fluctuations from one chain to another, and effectively induce one-dimensional behavior at low energies. For a model describing botallackite, Cu$_2$(OH)$_3$Br, quantum Monte Carlo dynamics show that beyond a critical magnetic field, the low-energy spectrum reduces to that of a one-dimensional AFM Heisenberg spin-$1/2$ chain with field-dependent incommensurate two-spinon fluctuations, providing clear signatures for inelastic neutron scattering.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2026

Thermal spin transport in easy-planar $d$-wave altermagnets controlled by magnetic field

Altermagnets constitute a novel class of collinear spin-compensated materials in which magnon branches are spin-split even in the non-relativistic limit. The latter is the result of a more complex symmetry operation (compared to conventional antiferromagnets) that connects the two sublattices. Altermagnetic splitting strongly affects the magnon transport properties, leading, in particular, to the thermal magnon splitter effect in easy-axial $d$-wave altermagnets. Whether this effect also appears in easy-planar systems is not obvious, since the magnon branches do not carry a constant magnetic moment in this case. Here, we consider the easy-planar $d$-wave altermagnet of a rutile-type, e.g., NiF$_2$, and demonstrate the emergence of the altermagnetically generated magnon magnetic moment, which is momentum-dependent and possesses $d$-wave symmetry. This then leads to the spin-splitter effect, i.e., the emergence of a magnon-driven spin current (the flow of magnetic moment) in response to the applied temperature gradient. We also demonstrate that the corresponding thermal spin conductivity can be effectively tuned by an external magnetic field perpendicular to the easy plane.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2026

Robust Signatures of Fragile Topology

Some topological phases of matter are called fragile. They do not generically host protected gapless boundary states and they can be trivialized by adding additional valence bands. Here we show that fragile topology nevertheless has robust signatures: it yields bulk Dirac cones in two-dimensional materials with arbitrarily many bands. In systems with time-reversal and twofold rotation symmetry, we establish a fragile topological index which guarantees the presence of gap closing points in the band structure. We test this prediction using first-principles calculations in five materials and find that all of them host such Dirac points, suggesting that this is a widespread phenomenon. Our results provide a robust spectroscopic signature of fragile topology which can be directly accessed in experiment. Further, they enable an alternate method for finding Dirac cones in ab-initio simulations, and may be used as a route towards identifying materials with nonlinear transport properties.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2026

Phonon-driven nodal surface superconductivity of Fermi arcs

According to recent observations, the topological surface states of Weyl semimetals may develop a superconducting gap, while bulk superconductivity remains absent. What drives the formation of this novel superconducting state is an open question. Here, we show that this phenomenon can arise from the interaction of Fermi arc electrons with both surface and bulk phonons in time-reversal-invariant Weyl semimetals. We identify two competing pairing channels, intra-arc and inter-arc, whose relative strength is governed by the efficiency of Coulomb screening at the surface. The combined effect of the Fermi arcs being disconnected and the weak screening of the Coulomb repulsion at the system's surface causes nodes to appear in the superconducting gap, as observed recently by photoelectron spectroscopy experiments on PtBi2. This suggests manipulation of the Coulomb screening, e.g. by a surface layer coating, as a pathway to engineer the critical temperature, as well as size and symmetry of the surface superconducting gap.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2026

Fermi energy Weyl nodes in $\mathbf{AM}$Te$_4$ ($\mathbf{A}$=Ta, Nb, $\mathbf{M}$=Ir, Rh)

Key aspects of the quantum oscillations and magnetoresistance in Weyl semimetals $AM$Te$_4$ ($A$=Nb,Ta, $M$=Rh, Ir) persist as open questions, obscuring the link between their topological electronic structure and practical implementations. Employing a generalised search procedure, we carry out a comprehensive scan of WPs accounting for all the subbands close to the Fermi energy, and show that this dramatically alters the WP landscape in these compounds. In particular, we predict these compounds to feature WPs within a few meV of the Fermi energy which significantly influence their properties. Remarkably, most of the considered compounds host WPs of more than one type, including NbRhTe$_4$ which hosts type-I, II and III Weyl points. Our comparative analysis of structure and fidelity of computational parameters/models not only provides a detailed mapping of the complex electronic structure in these compounds, but also clarifies quantum oscillations and magnetoresistance observations in this family, bridging the gap between theory and experiments and offering a framework for precise tunability of WPs.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2026

Multipolar Piezoelectricity and Anisotropic Surface Transport in Alterelectrics

Altermagnets are an emergent class of materials combining features of ferro- and antiferro-magnetic materials. They have spin-separated bands normally associated with ferromagnets, but a vanishing net magnetization. Moreover the symmetries giving rise to $d$-wave altermagnetism can provide them with a particular anisotropic, quadrupolar (i.e. with equal and opposite values when strained in perpendicular directions) piezomagnetism. Observing that the same symmetries provide a natural place to look for hyberbolic wave dispersion, this raises the question which properties are intrinsically linked to magnetism and which are determined by the symmetry. Here, we disentangle these concepts by introducing an alternative to altermagnets, based on electric polarization. These alterelectrics display quadrupolar piezoelectricity and a hyperbolic dispersion, which we demonstrate conceptually within a simplified model as well as a first-principles material realization. We furthermore establish that a counterpart of the spin-separated bands is formed by surface modes which allow for surface dependent anisotropic electronic transport analogous to the spintronic applications proposed for altermagnets.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2026

Hyperscaling of Fidelity and Operator Estimations in the Critical Manifold

By formulating the renormalization group as a quantum channel acting on density matrices in Quantum Field Theories (QFTs), we show that ground-state expectation values of observables supported on slow momentum modes can be approximated by their averages on the fixed-point theories to which the QFTs flow. This is done by studying the fidelity between ground states of different QFTs and arriving at certain hyperscaling relations satisfied at criticality. Our results allow for a clear identification of cases in which one can replace a QFT by its scale-invariant limit in the calculation of expectation values, opening the way for a range of applications, including the improvement of numerical and analytical methods used to tackle the costly computer simulation of critical models.

hep-th↗
arXiv2026

Sign control of photocurrents by spin-group-symmetry breaking in altermagnetic insulators

Controlling physical responses through symmetry breaking is a central paradigm in quantum materials, enabling novel functionalities. Here we determine the effects of spin-group-symmetry breaking on nonlinear optical responses of collinear altermagnetic insulators. Using shear strain as an example, we show that the direction of symmetry-breaking induced components of charge and spin photocurrents are locked to the sign of the strain. In the absence of spin-orbit coupling, this effect is intuitively captured by the spin-gap asymmetry--an imbalance between spin-up and spin-down direct band gaps which couples trilinearly with the Néel order and the strain. We demonstrate this mechanism with density functional theory calculations on the recently proposed altermagnet CuWP$_2$S$_6$. Having symmetry-guided control of both charge and spin photocurrents allows, vice versa, to reveal and investigate altermagnetism in insulating materials by exploration of their optical responses.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗