The hidden order in URu2Si2: Symmetry-induced anti-toroidal vortices

TL;DR

This paper proposes that the hidden order in URu2Si2 may be due to symmetry-induced anti-toroidal vortices with magnetic order that does not break spatial symmetry, explaining the elusive magnetic signals.

Contribution

It introduces a novel vortex-based magnetic order model for URu2Si2 that preserves spatial symmetry and predicts detectable magnetic multipoles.

Findings

Vortex magnetic order is energetically favorable and comparable in energy to non-magnetic phase.

The magnetic moments are strong enough to be detected by neutron scattering.

The model explains the hidden nature of the magnetic order in URu2Si2.

Abstract

We discuss possible approaches to the problem of the URu2Si2 "Hidden Order" (HO) which remains unsolved after tremendous efforts of researches. Suppose there is no spatial symmetry breaking at the HO transition temperature and solely the time-reversal symmetry breaking emerges owing to some sort of magnetic order. As a result of its 4/mmm symmetry, each uranium atom is a three-dimensional magnetic vortex; its intra-atomic magnetization M(r) is intrinsically non-collinear, so that its dipole, quadrupole and toroidal moments vanish, thus making the vortex "hidden". The first non-zero magnetic multipole of the uranium vortex is the toroidal quadrupole. In the unit cell, two uranium vortices can have either the same or opposite signs of M(r); this corresponds to either ferro-vortex or antiferro-vortex structures with I4/mmm or P_I4/mmm magnetic space groups, respectively. Our first-principles calculations suggest that the vortex magnetic order of URu2Si2 is rather strong: the total absolute magnetization |M(r)| is about 0.9 mu_B per U atom, detectable by neutron scattering in spite of the unusual formfactor. The ferro-vortex and antiferro-vortex phases have almost the same energy and they are energetically favorable compared to the non-magnetic phase.