Classification of magnons in Rotated Ferromagnetic Heisenberg model and their competing responses in transverse fields

TL;DR

This paper classifies magnon excitations in the Rotated Ferromagnetic Heisenberg model under transverse fields, revealing their distinct responses and phase transitions, and mapping out the evolution of these excitations in different quantum phases.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed classification of magnons in RFHM under transverse fields and analyzes their competing responses and phase transitions, especially the evolution of incommensurate magnons.

Findings

Magnons respond differently under $h_x$ and $h_z$ fields.

C-C$_0$, C-C$_{ ext{pi}}$, and C-IC magnons become relativistic in quantum ground states.

Transitions to ferromagnetic phases are in the 3d Ising universality class.

Abstract

Competing orders is a general concept to describe various quantum phases and transitions in various materials. One efficient way to investigate competing orders is to first classify different class of excitations in a given quantum phase, then study their competing responses under various external probes. This strategy may not only lead to deep understanding of the quantum phase itself, but also its deep connections to various other quantum phases nearby. We implement this approach by studying the Rotated Ferromagnetic Heisenberg model (RFHM) in two different transverse fields $h_x$ and $h_z$ which can be intuitively visualized as studying spin-orbit couplings (SOC) effects in 2d Ising or anisotropic XY model in a transverse field. At a special SOC class, it was known that the RFHM at a zero field owns an exact ground state called Y-x state. It supports non only the commensurate C-C$_0$ and C-C$_{\pi} $ magnons, but also the in-commensurate C-IC magnons. These magnons are non-relativistic, not contained in the exact ground state, so need to be thermally excited. Their dramatic response under the longitudinal $ h_y $ field was recently worked out by the authors. Here we find they respond very differently under the two transverse fields. Any $h_x$ ($h_z$) changes the collinear Y-x state to a canted co-planar YX-x (YZ-x) state which suffers quantum fluctuations. The C-C$_0$, C-C$_{\pi} $ and C-IC magnons sneak into the quantum ground state, become relativistic and play leading roles even at $ T=0 $. We map out the boundaries among the C-C$_0$, C-C$_{\pi} $ and C-IC magnons, especially the detailed evolution of the C-IC magnons inside the canted phases. As $h_x$ ($h_z$) increases further, the C-C$_0$ magnons always win the competition and emerge as the seeds to drive a transition from the YX-x (YZ-x) to the X-FM ( Z-FM ) which is shown to be in the 3d Ising universality class.