Emergent curved space and gravitational lensing in quantum materials

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how quantum materials with specific spin textures can exhibit emergent gravitational fields, leading to phenomena like electron lensing analogous to gravitational lensing in curved spacetime.

Contribution

It introduces a mechanism for emergent curved space in quantum materials caused by spin textures, revealing gravitational phenomena without actual magnetic fields.

Findings

Emergent curved space arises from quantum corrections in spin textures.

Electron lensing effect mimics gravitational lensing in curved spacetime.

Phenomena occur in systems without magnetic fields, broadening potential applications.

Abstract

We show that an effective gravitational field naturally emerges in quantum materials with long-wavelength spin (or pseudospin) textures. When the itinerant electrons' spin strongly couples to the background spin texture, it effectively behaves as a spinless particle in a curved space, with the curvature arising from quantum corrections to the electron's spin orientation. The emergent curved space gives rise to the electron lensing effect, an analog of the gravitational lensing. The lensing effect can appear in systems without (emergent) magnetic fields, such as those with coplanar spin textures. Our work shows that novel ``gravitational'' phenomena generically appear in quantum systems due to nonadiabaticity, opening new research directions in quantum physics.