A Unified Symmetry Classification of Magnetic Orders via Spin Space Groups: Prediction of Coplanar Even-Wave Phases

TL;DR

This paper develops a comprehensive symmetry-based framework using spin space groups to classify magnetic orders, predicting novel phases like coplanar even-wave magnetism and guiding experimental realization.

Contribution

It introduces a unified classification scheme for magnetic orders based on spin space groups, revealing new magnetic phases and extending to layered two-dimensional systems.

Findings

Prediction of coplanar even-wave magnet with non-collinear real-space and collinear k-space polarization

Identification of symmetry-enforced zero polarization on non-degenerate bands

Proposal of CoCrO4 as a candidate for experimental realization

Abstract

Spin space groups (SSGs) impose fundamentally different constraints on magnetic configurations in real and reciprocal spaces. As a consequence, the correspondence between real-space and momentum-space spin arrangements is far richer than traditionally assumed. Building on the complete enumeration of SSGs, we develop a systematic, symmetry-based framework that classifies all possible spin arrangements allowed by these groups. This unified approach naturally incorporates conventional magnetic orders, altermagnetism, and p-wave magnetism as distinct symmetry classes. Crucially, our classification predicts a variety of novel magnetic phases, highlighted by the discovery of the coplanar even-wave magnet: a state that is non-collinear in real space but hosts a collinear even-wave spin polarization in k-space. Analysis of a minimal model reveals that this phase is characterized by non-quantized spin polarization and exhibits a novel mechanism for symmetry-enforced zero polarization on non-degenerate bands. Extending the framework from bulk crystals to layer SSGs appropriate for two-dimensional systems, we further predict layered counterparts and provide symmetry guidelines for designing bilayer coplanar p-wave and even-wave magnets. We further validate this finding through first-principles calculations and propose CoCrO4 as a promising candidate for its experimental realization, thereby demonstrating the completeness and predictive power of the SSG-based classification of magnetic orders.