arXiv subjects

M. G. Gonzalez

Publications and source records attributed to M. G. Gonzalez.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

Non-linear magnons and exchange Hamiltonians of delafossite proximate quantum spin liquids

Quantum spin liquids (QSL) are theoretical states of matter with long-range entanglement and exotic quasiparticles. However, they generally elude quantitative theory, rendering their underlying phases mysterious and hampering efforts to identify experimental QSL states. Here we study triangular lattice resonating valence bond QSL candidate materials KYbSe$_2$ and NaYbSe$_2$. We measure the magnon modes in their 1/3 plateau phase, where quantitative theory is tractable, using inelastic neutron scattering and fit them using nonlinear spin wave theory. We also fit the KYbSe$_2$ heat capacity using high temperature series expansion. Both KYbSe$_2$ fits yield the same magnetic Hamiltonian to within uncertainty, confirming previous estimates and showing the Heisenberg $J_2/J_1$ to be an accurate model for these materials. Most importantly, comparing KYbSe$_2$ and NaYbSe$_2$ shows that smaller $A$-site Na$^+$ ion has a larger $J_2/J_1$ ratio. However, hydrostatic pressure applied to KYbSe$_2$ increases the ordering temperature (a result consistent with density functional theory calculations), indicating that pressure decreases $J_2/J_1$. These results show how periodic table and hydrostatic pressure can tune the $A$YbSe$_2$ materials in a controlled way.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Dynamics of K$_2$Ni$_2$(SO$_4$)$_3$ governed by proximity to a 3D spin liquid model

Quantum spin liquids (QSLs) have become a key area of research in magnetism due to their remarkable properties, such as long-range entanglement, fractional excitations, pinch-point singularities, and topologically protected phenomena. In recent years, the search for QSLs has expanded into the three-dimensional world, where promising features have been found in materials that form pyrochlore and hyper-kagome lattices, despite the suppression of quantum fluctuations due to high dimensionality. One such material is the $S = 1$ K$_2$Ni$_2$(SO$_4$)$_3$ compound, which belongs to the langbeinite family consisting of two interconnected trillium lattices. Although magnetically ordered, K$_2$Ni$_2$(SO$_4$)$_3$ has been found to exhibit a highly dynamical and correlated state which can be driven into a pure quantum spin liquid under magnetic fields of only $B \simeq 4$~T. In this article, we combine inelastic neutron scattering measurements with pseudo-fermion functional renormalization group (PFFRG) and classical Monte Carlo (cMC) calculations to study the magnetic properties of K$_2$Ni$_2$(SO$_4$)$_3$, revealing a high level of agreement between the experiment and theory. We further reveal the origin of the dynamical state in K$_2$Ni$_2$(SO$_4$)$_3$ by studying a larger set of exchange parameters, uncovering an `island of liquidity' around a focal point given by a magnetic network composed of tetrahedra on a trillium lattice.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Finite-temperature phase transitions in $S=1/2$ three-dimensional Heisenberg magnets from high-temperature series expansions

Many frustrated spin models on three-dimensional (3D) lattices are currently being investigated, both experimentally and theoretically, and develop new types of long-range orders in their respective phase diagrams. They present finite-temperature phase transitions, most likely in the Heisenberg 3D universality class. However, the combination between the 3D character and frustration makes them hard to study. We present here several methods derived from high-temperature series expansions (HTSEs), which give exact coefficients directly in the thermodynamic limit up to a certain order; for several 3D lattices, supplementary orders than in previous literature are reported for the HTSEs. We introduce an interpolation method able to describe thermodynamic quantities at $T > T_c$, which we use here to reconstruct the magnetic susceptibility and the specific heat and to extract universal and non-universal quantities (for example critical exponents, temperature, energy, entropy, and other parameters related to the phase transition). While the susceptibility associated with the order parameter is not usually known for more exotic long-range orders, the specific heat is indicative of a phase transition for any kind of symmetry breaking. We present examples of applications on ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic models on various 3D lattices and benchmark our results whenever possible.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Partially disordered Heisenberg antiferromagnet with short-range stripe correlations

Zero-point quantum fluctuations of a Néel order can produce effective interactions between quasi-orphan spins weakly coupled to the lattice. On the $\sqrt{3}\times\sqrt{3}-$distorted triangular lattice, this phenomenon leads to a correlated partially disordered phase. In this article, we use matrix product state methods to study a similar model: the $S=1/2$ stuffed square lattice. Tunning the exchange amplitudes we go from a square lattice plus orphan central spins at $J'/J =0$, to the union jack lattice at $J'/J=1$, and a square lattice including all spins at $J/J'=0$. We calculate the complete antiferromagnetic phase diagram, dominated by ferrimagnetic and Néel orders, and compare with existing results. Most importantly, we find a partially disordered phase in the weakly frustrated regime. In this phase, the Néel order from the square lattice is unaffected, while the central spins form a collective state with exponentially decaying double striped correlations. We also study the role of quantum fluctuations by introducing an ordering staggered magnetic field on the square sublattice, and find that the central spins order ferromagnetically when fluctuations from the Néel order are suppressed.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Logarithmic divergent specific heat from high-temperature series expansions: application to the two-dimensional XXZ Heisenberg model

We present an interpolation method for the specific heat $c_v(T)$, when there is a phase transition with a logarithmic singularity in $c_v$ at a critical temperature $T=T_c$. The method uses the fact that $c_v$ is constrained both by its high temperature series expansion, and just above $T_c$ by the type of singularity. We test our method on the ferro and antiferromagnetic Ising model on the two-dimensional square, triangular, honeycomb, and kagome lattices, where we find an excellent agreement with the exact solutions. We then explore the XXZ Heisenberg model, for which no exact results are available.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

On the robustness of model-based algorithms for photoacoustic tomography: comparison between time and frequency domains

For photoacoustic image reconstruction, certain parameters such as sensor positions and speed of sound have a major impact in the reconstruction process and must be carefully determined before data acquisition. Uncertainties in these parameters can lead to errors produced by a modeling mismatch, hindering the reconstruction process and severely affecting the resulting image quality. Therefore, in this work we study how modeling errors arising from uncertainty in sensor locations affect the images obtained by matrix model-based reconstruction algorithms based on time domain and frequency domain models of the photoacoustic problem. The effects on the reconstruction performance with respect to the uncertainty in the knowledge of the sensors location is compared and analyzed both in a qualitative and quantitative fashion for both time and frequency models. Ultimately, our study shows that the frequency domain approach is more sensitive to this kind of modeling errors. These conclusions are supported by numerical experiments and a theoretical sensitivity analysis of the mathematical operator for the direct problem.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2020

Interplay between spatial anisotropy and further exchange interactions in the triangular Heisenberg model

We investigate the interplay between spatial anisotropy and further exchange interactions in the spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ Heisenberg antiferromagnetic model on a triangular lattice. We use the Schwinger boson theory by including Gaussian fluctuations above the mean-field approach. The phase diagram exhibits a strong reduction of the long range collinear and incommensurate spirals regions with respect to the mean-field ones. This reduction is accompanied by the emergence of its short range order counterparts, leaving an ample room for $0$-flux and nematic spin liquid regions. Remarkably, within the neighborhood of the spatially isotropic line, there is a range where the spirals are so fragile that only the commensurate $120^{\circ}$ Néel ones survive. The good agreement with recent variational Monte Carlo predictions gives support to the rich phase diagram induced by spatial anisotropy.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Magnetic phase diagram of the infinite-U Hubbard model with nearest- and next nearest-neighbor hoppings

We study the infinite-U Hubbard model on ladders of 2, 4 and 6 legs with nearest (t) and next-nearest (t') neighbor hoppings by means of the density-matrix renormalization group algorithm. In particular, we analyze the stability of the Nagaoka state for several values of t' when we vary the electron density $(ρ)$ from half-filling to the low-density limit. We build the two-dimensional phase diagram, where the fully spin-polarized and paramagnetic states prevail. We find that the inclusion of a non-frustrating next nearest neighbor hopping stabilizes the fully spin-polarized phase up until |t'/t|=0.5. Surprisingly, for this value of t', the ground state is fully spin-polarized for almost any electron density 1 $\gtrsim ρ\gtrsim$ 0, connecting the Nagaoka state to itinerant ferromagnetism at low density. Also, we find that the previously found checkerboard insulator phase at t'=0 and $ρ$=0.75 is unstable against t'.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

Correlated partial disorder in a weakly frustrated quantum antiferromagnet

Partial disorder --the microscopic coexistence of long-range magnetic order and disorder-- is a rare phenomenon, that has been experimental and theoretically reported in some Ising- or easy plane-spin systems, driven by entropic effects at finite temperatures. Here, we present an analytical and numerical analysis of the $S=1/2$ Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the $\sqrt{3}\times \sqrt{3}$-distorted triangular lattice, which shows that its quantum ground state has partial disorder in the weakly frustrated regime. This state has a 180$^\circ$ Néel ordered honeycomb subsystem, coexisting with disordered spins at the hexagon center sites. These central spins are ferromagnetically aligned at short distances, as a consequence of a Casimir-like effect originated by the zero-point quantum fluctuations of the honeycomb lattice.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

Dynamical structure factor of the triangular antiferromagnet: the Schwinger boson theory beyond the mean field approach

We compute the zero temperature dynamical structure factor $S({\bf q},ω)$ of the triangular lattice Heisenberg model (TLHM) using a Schwinger boson approach that includes the Gaussian fluctuations ($1/N$ corrections) of the saddle point solution. While the ground state of this model exhibits a well-known 120$^{\circ}$ magnetic ordering, experimental observations have revealed a strong quantum character of the excitation spectrum. We conjecture that this phenomenon arises from the proximity of the ground state of the TLHM to the quantum melting point separating the magnetically ordered and spin liquid states. Within this scenario, magnons are described as collective modes (two spinon-bound states) of a spinon condensate (Higgs phase) that spontaneously breaks the SU(2) symmetry of the TLHM. Crucial to our results is the proper account of this spontaneous symmetry breaking. The main qualitative difference relative to semi-classical treatments ($1/S$ expansion) is the presence of a high-energy spinon continuum extending up to about three times the single-magnon bandwidth. In addition, the magnitude of the ordered moment ($m=0.224$) agrees very well with numerical results and the low energy part of the single-magnon dispersion is in very good agreement with series expansions. Our results indicate that the Schwinger boson approach is an adequate starting point for describing the excitation spectrum of some magnetically ordered compounds that are near the quantum melting point separating this Higgs phase from the {\it deconfined} spin liquid state.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

One dimensionalization in the spin-1 Heisenberg model on the anisotropic triangular lattice

We investigate the effect of dimensional crossover in the ground state of the antiferromagnetic spin-$1$ Heisenberg model on the anisotropic triangular lattice that interpolates between the regime of weakly coupled Haldane chains ($J^{\prime}\! \!\ll\!\! J$) and the isotropic triangular lattice ($J^{\prime}\!\!=\!\!J$). We use the density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) and Schwinger boson theory performed at the Gaussian correction level above the saddle-point solution. Our DMRG results show an abrupt transition between decoupled spin chains and the spirally ordered regime at $(J^{\prime}/J)_c\sim 0.42$, signaled by the sudden closing of the spin gap. Coming from the magnetically ordered side, the computation of the spin stiffness within Schwinger boson theory predicts the instability of the spiral magnetic order toward a magnetically disordered phase with one-dimensional features at $(J^{\prime}/J)_c \sim 0.43$. The agreement of these complementary methods, along with the strong difference found between the intra- and the interchain DMRG short spin-spin correlations; for sufficiently large values of the interchain coupling, suggests that the interplay between the quantum fluctuations and the dimensional crossover effects gives rise to the one-dimensionalization phenomenon in this frustrated spin-$1$ Hamiltonian.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2016

RVB signatures in the spin dynamics of the square-lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet

We investigate the spin dynamics of the square-lattice spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet by means of an improved mean field Schwinger boson calculation. By identifying both, the long range Néel and the RVB-like components of the ground state, we propose an educated guess for the mean field triplet excitation consisting on a linear combination of local and bond spin flips to compute the dynamical structure factor. Our main result is that when this triplet excitation is optimized in such a way that the corresponding sum rule is fulfilled, we recover the low and high energy spectral weight features of the experimental spectrum. In particular, the anomalous spectral weight depletion at $(π,0)$ found in recent inelastic neutron scattering experiments can be attributed to the interference of the triplet bond excitations of the RVB component of the ground state. We conclude that the Schwinger boson theory seems to be a good candidate to adequately interpret the dynamic properties of the square-lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet.

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