Spin-Nematic and Spin-Density-Wave Orders in Spatially Anisotropic Frustrated Magnets in a Magnetic Field

TL;DR

This paper develops a microscopic theory for finite-temperature spin-nematic and spin-density-wave orders in anisotropic frustrated magnets, providing phase diagrams and analyzing effects of four-spin interactions relevant to certain cuprate materials.

Contribution

It introduces a combined field theoretical and DMRG approach to map out finite-temperature phases in anisotropic frustrated spin chains, including effects of four-spin interactions.

Findings

Finite-temperature phase diagrams with spin-nematic and spin-density-wave phases.

Identification of the effects of four-spin interactions on magnetic ordering.

Relevance to quasi-one-dimensional cuprate magnets like LiCuVO4.

Abstract

We develop a microscopic theory of finite-temperature spin-nematic orderings in three-dimensional spatially anisotropic magnets consisting of weakly-coupled frustrated spin-1/2 chains with nearest-neighbor and next-nearest-neighbor couplings in a magnetic field. Combining a field theoretical technique with density-matrix renormalization group results, we complete finite-temperature phase diagrams in a wide magnetic-field range that possess spin-bond-nematic and incommensurate spin-density-wave ordered phases. The effects of a four-spin interaction are also studied. The relevance of our results to quasi-one-dimensional edge-shared cuprate magnets such as LiCuVO4 is discussed.