Emergent Coulombic criticality and Kibble-Zurek scaling in a topological magnet

TL;DR

This paper investigates the universal nonequilibrium dynamics of a topological magnet undergoing a liquid-gas transition, demonstrating Kibble-Zurek scaling and placing its critical point within the 3D Ising universality class.

Contribution

It reveals Kibble-Zurek scaling in a three-dimensional topological magnet with fractionalized excitations, linking it to the 3D Ising universality class.

Findings

Critical point in 3D Ising universality class.

Demonstration of Kibble-Zurek scaling in magnetic field sweeps.

Potential for experimental detection due to slow microscopic timescales.

Abstract

When a classical system is driven through a continuous phase transition, its nonequilibrium response is universal and exhibits Kibble-Zurek scaling. We explore this dynamical scaling in the novel context of a three-dimensional topological magnet with fractionalized excitations, namely the liquid-gas transition of the emergent mobile magnetic monopoles in dipolar spin ice. Using field-mixing and finite-size scaling techniques, we place the critical point of the liquid-gas line in the three-dimensional Ising universality class. We then demonstrate Kibble-Zurek scaling for sweeps of the magnetic field through the critical point. Unusually slow microscopic time scales in spin ice offer a unique opportunity to detect this universal nonequilibrium physics in current experimental setups.