A Bionic Coulomb Phase on the Pyrochlore Lattice

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new Coulomb phase in a four-state Potts model on the pyrochlore lattice, characterized by emergent gauge fields, bionic excitations, and flux loop behaviors, confirmed through simulations.

Contribution

It presents the first example of a Coulomb phase with three gauge fields in a classical lattice model, expanding understanding of emergent electromagnetism in condensed matter.

Findings

Identification of a Coulomb phase with three gauge fields

Observation of bion excitations with entropic interactions

Flux loop distribution scaling consistent with Coulomb phases

Abstract

A class of three dimensional classical lattice systems with macroscopic ground state degeneracies, most famously the spin ice system, are known to exhibit "Coulomb" phases wherein long wavelength correlations within the ground state manifold are described by an emergent Maxwell electrodynamics. We discuss a new example of this phenomenon-the four state Potts model on the pyrochlore lattice-where the long wavelength description now involves three independent gauge fields as we confirm via simulation. The excitations above the ground state manifold are bions, defects that are simultaneously charged under two of the three gauge fields, and exhibit an entropic interaction dictated by these charges. We also show that the distribution of flux loops shows a scaling with loop length and system size previously identified as characteristic of Coulomb phases.