Exact Matrix Product States at the Quantum Lifshitz Tricritical Point in a Spin-1/2 Zigzag-Chain Antiferromagnet with Anisotropic Γ Term.

Quantum anisotropic exchange interactions in magnets can induce competitions between phases in a different manner from those typically driven by geometrically frustrated interactions. We study a one-dimensional spin-1/2 zigzag chain with such an interaction, Γ term, in conjunction with the Heisenberg interactions. We find a ground state phase diagram featuring a multicritical point where five phases converge: a uniform ferromagnet, two antiferromagnets, Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid, and a dimer-singlet coexisting with nematic order. This multicritical point is simultaneously quantum tricritical and Lifshitz, and most remarkably, it hosts multidegenerate ground state wave functions with the degeneracy increasing in squares of system size. The exact ground states are obtained in the matrix product form opening wide applications to frustration-free models.

Magnon thermal Hall effect via emergent SU(3) flux on the antiferromagnetic skyrmion lattice.

Complexity of quantum phases of matter is often understood theoretically by using gauge structures, as is recognized by the [Formula: see text] and U(1) gauge theory description of spin liquids in frustrated magnets. Anomalous Hall effect of conducting electrons can intrinsically arise from a U(1) gauge expressing the spatial modulation of ferromagnetic moments or from an SU(2) gauge representing the spin-orbit coupling effect. Similarly, in insulating ferro and antiferromagnets, the magnon contribution to anomalous transports is explained in terms of U(1) and SU(2) fluxes present in the ordered magnetic structure. Here, we report thermal Hall measurements of MnSc2S4 in an applied field up to 14 T, for which we consider an emergent higher rank SU(3) flux, controlling the magnon transport. The thermal Hall coefficient takes a substantial value when the material enters a three-sublattice antiferromagnetic skyrmion phase, which is in agreement with the linear spin-wave theory. In our description, magnons are dressed with SU(3) gauge field, which is a mixture of three species of U(1) gauge fields originating from the slowly varying magnetic moments on these sublattices.

Perfect flat band with chirality and charge ordering out of strong spin-orbit interaction.

Spin-orbit interaction has established itself as a key player in the emergent phenomena in modern condensed matter, including topological insulator, spin liquid and spin-dependent transports. However, its function is rather limited to adding topological nature to band kinetics, leaving behind the growing interest in the direct interplay with electron correlation. Here, we prove by our spinor line graph theory that a very strong spin-orbit interaction realized in 5d pyrochlore electronic systems generates multiply degenerate perfect flat bands. Unlike any of the previous flat bands, the electrons in this band localize in real space by destructively interfering with each other in a spin selective manner governed by the SU(2) gauge field. These electrons avoid the Coulomb interaction by self-organizing their localized wave functions, which may lead to a flat-band state with a stiff spin chirality. It also causes perfectly trimerized charge ordering, which may explain the recently discovered exotic low-temperature insulating phase of CsW2O6.

Sine-square deformation applied to classical Ising models.

Sine-square deformation (SSD) is a treatment proposed in quantum systems, which spatially modifies a Hamiltonian, gradually decreasing the local energy scale from the center of the system toward the edges by a sine-squared envelope function. It is known to serve as a good boundary condition as well as to provide physical quantities reproducing those of the infinite-size systems. We apply the SSD to one- and two-dimensional classical Ising models. Based on the analytical calculations and Monte Carlo simulations, we find that the classical SSD system is regarded as an extended canonical ensemble of a local subsystem, each characterized by its own effective temperature. This effective temperature is defined by normalizing the system temperature by the deformed local energy scale. A single calculation for a given system temperature provides a set of physical quantities of various temperatures that quantitatively reproduces well those of the uniform system.

Spin-Orbital Glass Transition in a Model of a Frustrated Pyrochlore Magnet without Quenched Disorder.

We show theoretically that spin and orbital degrees of freedom in the pyrochlore oxide Y_{2}Mo_{2}O_{7}, which is free of quenched disorder, can exhibit a simultaneous glass transition, working as dynamical disorder for each other. The interplay of spins and orbitals is mediated by the Jahn-Teller lattice distortion that selects the choice of orbitals, which then generates variant spin exchange interactions ranging from ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic ones. Our Monte Carlo simulations detect the power-law divergence of the relaxation times and the negative divergence of both the magnetic and dielectric nonlinear susceptibilities, resolving the long-standing puzzle on the origin of the disorder-free spin glass.

From Linear to Nonlinear Responses of Thermal Pure Quantum States.

We propose a self-validating scheme to calculate the unbiased responses of quantum many-body systems to external fields of arbitrary strength at any temperature. By switching on a specified field to a thermal pure quantum state of an isolated system, and tracking its time evolution, one can observe an intrinsic thermalization process driven solely by many-body effects. The transient behavior before thermalization contains rich information on excited states, giving the linear and nonlinear response functions at all frequencies. We uncover the necessary conditions to clarify the applicability of this formalism, supported by a proper definition of the nonlinear response function. The accuracy of the protocol is guaranteed by a rigorous upper bound of error exponentially decreasing with system size, and is well implemented in the simple ferromagnetic Heisenberg chain, whose response at high fields exhibits a nonlinear band deformation. We further extract the characteristic features of excitation of the spin-1/2 kagome antiferromagnet; the wave-number-insensitive linear responses from the possible spin liquid ground state, and the significantly broad nonlinear peaks which should be generated from numerous collisions of quasiparticles, that are beyond the perturbative description.

Large surface relaxation in the organic semiconductor tetracene.

Organic crystals are likely to have a large degree of structural relaxation near their surfaces because of the weak inter-molecular interactions. The design of organic field-effect transistors requires a detailed knowledge of the surface relaxation as the carriers usually transfer within the first few molecular layers at the semiconductor surfaces, and their transport properties reflect the structural changes through the transfer integral. Here, we report the direct observation of the surface relaxation of an organic semiconductor, a tetracene single crystal, by means of X-ray crystal truncation rod scattering measurements. A significant degree of surface relaxation is observed, taking place only in the first monolayer at the semiconductor surface. First principles calculations show that the resultant transfer integrals are completely different between the bulk and surface of the semiconductor.

Controlling frustrated liquids and solids with an applied field in a kagome Heisenberg antiferromagnet.

Quantum spin-1/2 kagome Heisenberg antiferromagnet is the representative frustrated system possibly hosting a spin liquid. Clarifying the nature of this elusive topological phase is a key challenge in condensed matter; however, even identifying it still remains unsettled. Here we apply a magnetic field and discover a series of spin-gapped phases appearing at five different fractions of magnetization by means of a grand canonical density matrix renormalization group, an unbiased state-of-the-art numerical technique. The magnetic field dopes magnons and first gives rise to a possible Z3 spin liquid plateau at 1/9 magnetization. Higher field induces a self-organized super-lattice unit, a six-membered ring of quantum spins, resembling an atomic orbital structure. Putting magnons into this unit one by one yields three quantum solid plateaus. We thus find that the magnetic field could control the transition between various emergent phases by continuously releasing the frustration.

Multiferroicity in an organic charge-transfer salt that is suggestive of electric-dipole-driven magnetism.

Multiferroics, showing simultaneous ordering of electrical and magnetic degrees of freedom, are remarkable materials as seen from both the academic and technological points of view. A prominent mechanism of multiferroicity is the spin-driven ferroelectricity, often found in frustrated antiferromagnets with helical spin order. There, as for conventional ferroelectrics, the electrical dipoles arise from an off-centre displacement of ions. However, recently a different mechanism, namely purely electronic ferroelectricity, where charge order breaks inversion symmetry, has attracted considerable interest. Here we provide evidence for ferroelectricity, accompanied by antiferromagnetic spin order, in a two-dimensional organic charge-transfer salt, thus representing a new class of multiferroics. We propose a charge-order-driven mechanism leading to electronic ferroelectricity in this material. Quite unexpectedly for electronic ferroelectrics, dipolar and spin order arise nearly simultaneously. This can be ascribed to the loss of spin frustration induced by the ferroelectric ordering. Hence, here the spin order is driven by the ferroelectricity, in marked contrast to the spin-driven ferroelectricity in helical magnets.

Dimensional tuning of electronic states under strong and frustrated interactions.

We study a model of strongly interacting spinless fermions on an anisotropic triangular lattice. At half-filling and the limit of strong repulsive nearest-neighbor interactions, the fermions align in stripes and form an insulating state. When a particle is doped, it either follows a one-dimensional free motion along the stripes or fractionalizes perpendicular to the stripes. The two propagations yield a dimensional tuning of the electronic state. We study the stability of this phase and derive an effective model to describe the low-energy excitations. Spectral functions are presented which can be used to experimentally detect signatures of the charge excitations.

Universal temperature dependence of the magnetization of gapped spin chains.

A Haldane chain under applied field is analyzed numerically, and a clear minimum of magnetization is observed as a function of temperature. We elucidate its origin using the effective theory near the critical field and propose a simple method to estimate the gap from the magnetization at finite temperatures. We also demonstrate that there exists a relation between the temperature dependence of the magnetization and the field dependence of the spin-wave velocity. Our arguments are universal for general axially symmetric one-dimensional spin systems.

Interaction of the ground state of quarter-filled one-dimensional strongly correlated electronic system with localized spins.

We study numerically the ground-state properties of the one-dimensional quarter-filled strongly correlated electronic system interacting antiferromagnetically with localized S = 1/2 spins. It is shown that the charge-ordered state is significantly stabilized by the introduction of relatively small coupling with the localized spins. When the coupling becomes large the spin and charge degrees of freedom behave quite independently and the ferromagnetism is realized. Moreover, the coexistence of ferromagnetism with charge order is seen in the strongly interacting region. The present theoretical results are to be compared with the experiments on phthalocyanine compounds.