Arrested Relaxation in a Disorder-Free Coulomb Spin Liquid

TL;DR

This paper uncovers a new class of Coulomb spin liquids in classical spin-3/2 ice, revealing unique excitations and dynamical arrest phenomena absent in lower-spin systems, expanding understanding of disorder-free frustrated magnetism.

Contribution

It introduces a novel phase of Coulomb spin liquids in spin-3/2 ice with unique excitations and demonstrates dynamical arrest in a disorder-free system, highlighting new physics in higher-spin frustrated magnets.

Findings

Discovery of a new class of Coulomb spin liquids in spin-3/2 ice.

Observation of long-lived athermal plateau indicating dynamical arrest.

Identification of composite excitations and kinetically constrained relaxation pathways.

Abstract

We investigate Coulomb spin liquids in classical spin-3/2 ice and show that the enlarged on-site Hilbert space gives rise to a qualitatively new class of such phases. Beyond the conventional magnetic monopoles of spin-1/2 ice, the system hosts additional low-energy crystal-field excitations, whose interplay with monopoles significantly modifies both equilibrium and non-equilibrium properties. Following a thermal quench, we find a pronounced dynamical arrest manifested in an exponentially long-lived {athermal} plateau in spin autocorrelations. This constitutes a rare example of dynamical arrest in a short-range interacting, disorder-free system. We demonstrate that the arrested dynamics originate from novel composite excitation structures unique to spin-3/2 ice and from kinetically constrained relaxation pathways that require activated processes. Our results establish higher-spin ice as a fertile platform for realising unconventional Coulomb spin liquids and dynamical arrest without quenched disorder.