Magnetic monopole condensation in pyrochlore ice quantum spin liquid: application to Pr2Ir2O7 and Yb2Ti2O7

TL;DR

This paper investigates magnetic monopole condensation in quantum spin liquids on pyrochlore lattices, explaining experimental observations in Pr2Ir2O7 and Yb2Ti2O7 through a theoretical framework involving quantum criticality and phase transitions.

Contribution

It introduces a duality-based analysis of monopole condensation in U(1) quantum spin liquids, revealing the nature of phase transitions and their relation to observed magnetic orders in specific pyrochlore materials.

Findings

Magnetic monopole condensation leads to Ising magnetic orders with specific wavevectors.

The transition from U(1) QSL to Ising order can be first order or continuous, depending on the order.

The theory explains the proximity of certain magnetic states to quantum spin liquids in Pr2Ir2O7 and Yb2Ti2O7.

Abstract

Pyrochlore iridates and pyrochlore ices are two families of materials where novel quantum phenomena are intertwined with strong spin-orbit coupling, substantial electron correlation and geometrical frustration. Motivated by the puzzling experiments on two pyrochlore systems Pr2Ir2O7 and Yb2Ti2O7, we study the proximate Ising orders and the quantum phase transition out of quantum spin ice U(1) quantum spin liquid (QSL). We apply the electromagnetic duality of the compact quantum electrodynamics to analyze the "magnetic monopoles" condensation for U(1) QSL. The monopole condensation transition represents a unconventional quantum criticality with unusual scaling laws. It naturally leads to the Ising orders that belong to the "2-in 2-out" spin ice manifold and generically have an enlarged magnetic unit cell. We demonstrate that the antiferormagnetic Ising state with the ordering wavevector ${\bf Q} = 2\pi(001)$ is proximate to U(1) QSL while the ferromagnetic Ising state with ${\bf Q}=(000)$ is not proximate to U(1) QSL. This implies that if there exists a direct transition from U(1) QSL to the ferromagnetic Ising state, the transition must be strongly first order. We apply the theory to Pr2Ir2O7 and Yb2Ti2O7.