Thermal quenches in spin ice

TL;DR

This paper investigates how magnetic monopoles in spin ice undergo a Coulomb-interaction-driven dynamical arrest during quenches, revealing non-universal effects beyond mean-field theory and proposing experimental detection methods.

Contribution

It uncovers the non-universal dynamical arrest caused by Coulomb interactions in spin ice monopoles during quenches, beyond mean-field predictions.

Findings

Dynamical arrest occurs due to Coulomb interactions between monopoles.

Non-universal lattice-scale constraints impede charge fluctuation decay.

Proposed experimental detection of monopole dynamics based on this phenomenon.

Abstract

We study the diffusion annihilation process which occurs when spin ice is quenched from a high temperature paramagnetic phase deep into the spin ice regime, where the excitations -- magnetic monopoles -- are sparse. We find that due to the Coulomb interaction between the monopoles, a dynamical arrest occurs, in which `non-universal' lattice-scale constraints impede the complete decay of charge fluctuations. This phenomenon is outside the reach of universal mean-field theory for a two-component Coulomb liquid. We identify the relevant timescales for the dynamical arrest and propose an experiment for detecting monopoles and their dynamics in spin ice based on this non-equilibrium phenomenon.