Monopoles, Dirac strings and Magnetic Noise in Model Spin Ice

TL;DR

This paper explores the analogy between magnetic monopoles in spin ice and vacuum monopoles using Dirac strings, and investigates magnetic noise, revealing that long-term correlations mainly originate from Dirac strings rather than monopoles.

Contribution

It introduces a formalism connecting monopoles and Dirac strings in spin ice, and demonstrates how magnetic noise signals are predominantly due to Dirac strings rather than monopoles.

Findings

Magnetic noise correlations mainly stem from Dirac strings.

The Dirac string formalism effectively models monopole dynamics in spin ice.

Simulation reproduces experimental monopole detection setups.

Abstract

Using the Dirac string formalism for monopoles we expose an extensive analogy between magnetic monopole excitations in the dumbbell model of spin ice and those of the vacuum. In both cases the Dirac strings are defined in the space-time of monopole trajectories which are simulated in spin ice using transition graphs between initial and final configurations. The Stanford experiment for Dirac monopole detection is reconstructed in spin ice using the fragmentation procedure. The setup is then extended to simulate magnetic noise experiments using stochastic dynamics. It is shown that the noise from the monopoles and their constraining strings can be separated and that the correlated signal over long times comes largely from the constraining strings rather than from the monopoles themselves.