arXiv subjects

Leon Balents

Publications and source records attributed to Leon Balents.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources

arXiv2008

Bismuth in strong magnetic fields: unconventional Zeeman coupling and correlation effects

Recent experiments on bismuth have uncovered remarkably rich magnetization structure at fields well beyond the regime in which all carriers are expected to reside in the lowest Landau level. Motivated by these findings, we start from a microscopic tight-binding model and derive a low-energy Hamiltonian for the holes and three Dirac electrons pockets in bismuth. We find that an unconventional electron Zeeman effect, overlooked previously, suppresses the quantum limit for the electrons dramatically, giving rise to the observed anomalous magnetization structure. We further study interaction effects near fields at which the 2nd Landau level for one electron pocket empties, where magnetization hysteresis was observed. Here we find instabilities towards both charge density wave and Wigner crystal phases, and propose that hysteresis arises from a first-order transition out of the latter.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2008

Theory of the Ordered Phase in A-site Antiferromagnetic Spinels

Insulating spinel materials, with the chemical formula $AB_2X_4$, behave as diamond lattice antiferromagnets when only the A-site atom is magnetic. Many exhibit classic signatures of frustration, induced not geometrically but by competing first and second neighbor exchange interactions. In this paper, we further develop a theory of the magnetism of these materials, focusing on the physics observable within the ordered state. We derive a phenomenological Landau theory that predicts the orientation of the spins within incommensurate spiral ordered states. It also describes how the spins reorient in a magnetic field, and how they may undergo a low temperature "lock-in" transition to a commensurate state. We discuss microscopic mechanisms for these magnetic anisotropy effects. The reduction of the ordered moment by quantum fluctuations is shown to be enhanced due to frustration. Our results are compared to experiments on MnSc_2S_4, the best characterized of such A-site spinels, and more general implications are discussed. One prediction is that magnetically-induced ferroelectricity is generic in these materials, and a detailed description of the relation of the electric polarization to the magnetism is given.

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arXiv2008

Gapless spin liquids on the three dimensional hyper-kagome lattice of Na$_4$Ir$_3$O$_8$

Recent experiments indicate that Na$_4$Ir$_3$O$_8$, a material in which s=1/2 iridium local moments form a three dimensional network of corner-sharing triangles, may have a quantum spin liquid ground state with gapless spin excitations. Using a combination of exact diagonalization, symmetry analysis of fermionic mean field ground states and Gutzwiller projected variational wavefunction studies, we propose a quantum spin liquid with spinon Fermi surfaces as a favorable candidate for the ground state of the Heisenberg model on the hyper-kagome lattice of Na$_4$Ir$_3$O$_8$. We present a renormalized mean field theory of the specific heat of this spin liquid and also discuss possible low temperature instabilities of the spinon Fermi surfaces.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2008

Spin-orbit effects in Na$_4$Ir$_3$O$_8$, a hyper-kagomé lattice antiferromagnet

We consider spin-orbit coupling effects in Na$_4$Ir$_3$O$_8$, a material in which Ir$^{4+}$ spins form an hyper-kagomé lattice, a three-dimensional network of corner-sharing triangles. We argue that both low temperature thermodynamic measurements and the impurity susceptibility induced by dilute substitution of Ti for Ir are suggestive of significant spin-orbit effects. Because of uncertainties in the crystal-field parameters, we consider two limits in which the spin-orbit coupling is either weak or strong compared to the non-cubic atomic splittings. A semi-microscopic calculation of the exchange Hamiltonian confirms that indeed large antisymmetric Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) and/or symmetric exchange anisotropy may be present. In the strong spin-orbit limit, the Ir-O-Ir superexchange contribution consists of unfrustrated strong symmetric exchange anisotropy, and we suggest that spin-liquid behavior is unlikely. In the weak spin-orbit limit, and for strong spin-orbit and direct Ir-Ir exchange, the Hamiltonian consists of Heisenberg and DM interactions. The DM coupling is parametrized by a three component DM vector (which must be determined empirically). For a range of orientation of this vector, frustration is relieved and an ordered state occurs. For other orientations, even the classical ground states are very complex. We perform spin-wave and exact diagonalization calculations which suggest the persistence of a quantum spin liquid in the latter regime. Applications to Na$_4$Ir$_3$O$_8$ and broader implications are discussed.

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arXiv2008

Band touching from real space topology in frustrated hopping models

We study ``frustrated'' hopping models, in which at least one energy band, at the maximum or minimum of the spectrum, is dispersionless. The states of the flat band(s) can be represented in a basis which is fully localized, having support on a vanishing fraction of the system in the thermodynamic limit. In the majority of examples, a dispersive band touches the flat band(s) at a number of discrete points in momentum space. We demonstrate that this band touching is related to states which exhibit non-trivial topology in real space. Specifically, these states have support on one-dimensional loops which wind around the entire system (with periodic boundary conditions). A counting argument is given that determines, in each case, whether there is band touching or not, in precise correspondence to the result of straightforward diagonalization. When they are present, the topological structure protects the band touchings in the sense that they can only be removed by perturbations which {\sl also} split the degeneracy of the flat band.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2007

Ordered Phases of the Anisotropic Kagome Lattice Antiferromagnet in a Field

The antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on an anisotropic kagome lattice may be a good minimal model for real magnetic systems as well as a limit from which the isotropic case can be better understood. We therefore study the nearest-neighbor Heisenberg antiferromagnet on an anisotropic kagome lattice in a magnetic field. Such a system should be well described by weakly interacting spin chains, and we motivate a general form for the interaction by symmetry considerations and by perturbatively projecting out the inter-chain spins. In the spin 1/2 case, we find that the system exhibits a quantum phase transition from a ferrimagnetic ordered state to an XY ordered state as the field is increased. Finally, we discuss the appearance of magnetization plateaux in the ferrimagnetic phase.

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arXiv2007

Odd-Integer Quantum Hall Effect in Graphene: Interaction and Disorder Effects

We study the competition between the long-range Coulomb interaction, disorder scattering, and lattice effects in the integer quantum Hall effect (IQHE) in graphene. By direct transport calculations, both $ν=1$ and $ν=3$ IQHE states are revealed in the lowest two Dirac Landau levels. However, the critical disorder strength above which the $ν=3$ IQHE is destroyed is much smaller than that for the $ν=1$ IQHE, which may explain the absence of a $ν=3$ plateau in recent experiments. While the excitation spectrum in the IQHE phase is gapless within numerical finite-size analysis, we do find and determine a mobility gap, which characterizes the energy scale of the stability of the IQHE. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the $ν=1$ IQHE state is a Dirac valley and sublattice polarized Ising pseudospin ferromagnet, while the $ν=3$ state is an $xy$ plane polarized pseudospin ferromagnet.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Emergence of U(1) symmetry in the 3D XY model with Zq anisotropy

We study the three-dimensional XY model with a Z_q anisotropic term. At temperatures T < Tc this dangerously irrelevant perturbation is relevant only above a length scale Lambda, which diverges as a power of the correlation length; Lambda ~ xi^a_q. Below Lambda the order parameter is U(1) symmetric. We derive the full scaling function controlling the emergence of U(1) symmetry and use Monte Carlo results to extract the exponent a_q for q=4,...,8. We find that a_q = a_4 (q/4)^2, with a_4 only marginally larger than 1. We discuss these results in the context of U(1) symmetry at "deconfined" quantum critical points separating antiferromagnetic and valence-bond-solid states in quantum spin systems.

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arXiv2007

Flat bands and Wigner crystallization in the honeycomb optical lattice

We study the ground states of cold atoms in the tight-binding bands built from p-orbitals on a two dimensional honeycomb optical lattice. The band structure includes two completely flat bands. Exact many-body ground states with on-site repulsion can be found at low particle densities, for both fermions and bosons. We find crystalline order at n=1/6 with a $\sqrt{3} \times \sqrt{3}$ structure breaking a number of discrete lattice symmetries. In fermionic systems, if the repulsion is strong enough, we find the bonding strength becomes \emph{dimerized} at n=1/2. Experimental signatures of crystalline order can be detected through the noise correlations in time of flight experiments.

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arXiv2007

Gradient expansion approach to multiple-band Fermi liquids

Promoted by the recent progress of Berry phase physics in spin galvanomagnetic communities, we develop a systematic derivation of the reduced Keldysh equation (RKE) which captures the low-energy dynamics of quasi-particles constrained within doubly degenerate bands forming a single Fermi surface. Specifically, we project out the fully occupied/empty band degrees of freedom perturbatively in the gradient expansion, whose coupling constant measures how a system is disequilibrated. As for the electron-electron interactions, however, we only employ the so-called adiabatic assumption of the Fermi liquid theory, so that the effect of electron correlations onto the adiabatic transport of quasi-particles, i.e. the hermitian (real) part of the self-energy, is taken into account in an unbiased manner.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2007

Artificial electric field in Fermi Liquids

Based on the Keldysh formalism, we derive an effective Boltzmann equation for a quasi-particle associated with a particular Fermi surface in an interacting Fermi liquid. This provides a many-body derivation of Berry curvatures in electron dynamics with spin-orbit coupling, which has received much attention in recent years in non-interacting models. As is well-known, the Berry curvature in momentum space modifies naive band dynamics via an artificial magnetic field in momentum space. Our Fermi liquid formulation completes the reinvention of modified band dynamics by introducing in addition an "artificial electric field", related to Berry curvature in frequency and momentum space. We show explicitly how the artificial electric field affects the renormalization factor and transverse conductivity of interacting U(1) Fermi liquids with non-degenerate bands. Accordingly, we also propose a method of momentum resolved Berry's curvature detection in terms of angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES).

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arXiv2007

Semiclassical dynamics and long time asymptotics of the central-spin problem in a quantum dot

The spin of an electron trapped in a quantum dot is a promising candidate implementation of a qubit for quantum information processing. We study the central spin problem of the effect of the hyperfine interaction between such an electron and a large number of nuclear moments. Using a spin coherent path integral, we show that in this limit the electron spin evolution is well described by classical dynamics of both the nuclear and electron spins. We then introduce approximate yet systematic methods to analyze aspects of the classical dynamics, and discuss the importance of the exact integrability of the central spin Hamiltonian. This is compared with numerical simulation. Finally, we obtain the asymptotic long time decay of the electron spin polarization. We show that this is insensitive to integrability, and determined instead by the transfer of angular momentum to very weakly coupled spins far from the center of the quantum dot. The specific form of the decay is shown to depend sensitively on the form of the electronic wavefunction.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Spinons and triplons in spatially anisotropic frustrated antiferromagnets

The search for elementary excitations with fractional quantum numbers is a central challenge in modern condensed matter physics. We explore the possibility in a realistic model for several materials, the spin-1/2 spatially anisotropic frustrated Heisenberg antiferromagnet in two dimensions. By restricting the Hilbert space to that expressed by exact eigenstates of the Heisenberg chain, we derive an effective Schrödinger equation valid in the weak interchain-coupling regime. The dynamical spin correlations from this approach agree quantitatively with inelastic neutron measurements on the triangular antiferromagnet Cs_2CuCl_4. The spectral features in such antiferromagnets can be attributed to two types of excitations: descendents of one-dimensional spinons of individual chains, and coherently propagating "triplon" bound states of spinon pairs. We argue that triplons are generic features of spatially anisotropic frustrated antiferromagnets, and arise because the bound spinon pair lowers its kinetic energy by propagating between chains.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2007

Ordering in spatially anisotropic triangular antiferromagnets

We investigate the phase diagram of the anisotropic spin-1/2 triangular lattice antiferromagnet, with interchain diagonal exchange J' much weaker than the intrachain exchange J. We find that fluctuations lead to a competition between (commensurate) collinear antiferromagnetic and (zig-zag) dimer orders. Both states differ in symmetry from the spiral order known to occur for larger J', and are therefore separated by quantum phase transitions from it. The zero-field collinear antiferromagnet is succeeded in a magnetic field by magnetically-ordered spin-density-wave and cone phases, before reaching the fully polarized state. Implications for the anisotropic triangular magnet Cs_2CuCl_4 are discussed.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2006

Dual vortex theory of doped Mott insulators

We present a general framework for describing the quantum phases obtained by doping paramagnetic Mott insulators on the square lattice. The undoped insulators are efficiently characterized by the projective transformations of various fields under the square lattice space group (the PSG). We show that the PSG also imposes powerful constraints on the doped system, and on the effective action for the vortex and Bogoliubov quasiparticle excitations of superconducting states. This action can also be extended across transitions to supersolid or insulating states at nonzero doping. For the case of a valence bond solid (VBS) insulator, we show that the doped system has the same PSG as that of elementary bosons with density equal to the density of electron Cooper pairs. We also discuss aspects of the action for a d-wave superconductor obtained by doping a ``staggered-flux'' spin liquid state.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2006

Order by disorder and spiral spin liquid in frustrated diamond lattice antiferromagnets

Frustration refers to competition between different interactions that cannot be simultaneously satisfied, a familiar feature in many magnetic solids. Strong frustration results in highly degenerate ground states, and a large suppression of ordering by fluctuations. Key challenges in frustrated magnetism are characterizing the fluctuating spin-liquid regime and determining the mechanism of eventual order at lower temperature. Here, we study a model of a diamond lattice antiferromagnet appropriate for numerous spinel materials. With sufficiently strong frustration a massive ground state degeneracy develops amongst spirals whose propagation wavevectors reside on a continuous two-dimensional ``spiral surface'' in momentum space. We argue that an important ordering mechanism is entropic splitting of the degenerate ground states, an elusive phenomena called order-by-disorder. A broad ``spiral spin-liquid'' regime emerges at higher temperatures, where the underlying spiral surface can be directly revealed via spin correlations. We discuss the agreement between these predictions and the well characterized spinel MnSc2S4.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2006

Effective Hamiltonians for some highly frustrated magnets

In prior work, the authors developed a method of degenerate perturbation theory about the Ising limit to derive an effective Hamiltonian describing quantum fluctuations in a half-polarized magnetization plateau on the pyrochlore lattice. Here, we extend this formulation to an arbitrary lattice of corner sharing simplexes of $q$ sites, at a fraction $(q-2k)/q$ of the saturation magnetization, with $0<k<q$. We present explicit effective Hamiltonians for the examples of the checkerboard, kagome, and pyrochlore lattices. The consequent ground states in these cases for $k=1$ are also discussed.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2006

Degenerate perturbation theory of quantum fluctuations in a pyrochlore antiferromagnet

We study the effect of quantum fluctuations on the half-polarized magnetization plateau of a pyrochlore antiferromagnet. We argue that an expansion around the easy axis limit is appropriate for discussing the ground state selection amongst the classically degenerate manifold of collinear states with a 3:1 ratio of spins parallel/anti-parallel to the magnetization axis. A general approach to the necessary degenerate perturbation theory is presented, and an effective quantum dimer model within this degenerate manifold is derived for arbitrary spin $s$. We also generalize the existing semiclassical analysis of Hizi and Henley [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 73}, 054403 (2006)] to the easy axis limit, and show that both approaches agree at large $s$. We show that under rather general conditions, the first non-constant terms in the effective Hamiltonian for $s\geq 1$ occur only at {\sl sixth} order in the transverse exchange coupling. For $s\geq 3/2$, the effective Hamiltonian predicts a magnetically ordered state. For $s\leq 1$ more exotic possibilities may be realized, though an analytical solution of the resulting quantum dimer model is not possible.

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