TY - JOUR
T1 - Tunable nonequilibrium dynamics of field quenches in spin ice
AU - Mostame, Sarah
AU - Castelnovo, Claudio
AU - Moessner, Roderich
AU - Sondhi, Shivaji Lal
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2014 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - We present nonequilibrium physics in spin ice as a unique setting that combines kinematic constraints, emergent topological defects, and magnetic long-range Coulomb interactions. In spin ice, magnetic frustration leads to highly degenerate yet locally constrained ground states. Together, they form a highly unusual magnetic state-a "Coulomb phase"-whose excitations are point-like defects-magnetic monopoles-in the absence of which effectively no dynamics is possible. Hence, when they are sparse at low temperature, dynamics becomes very sluggish. When quenching the system from a monopole-rich to a monopole-poor state, a wealth of dynamical phenomena occur, the exposition of which is the subject of this article. Most notably, we find reaction diffusion behavior, slow dynamics owing to kinematic constraints, as well as a regime corresponding to the deposition of interacting dimers on a honeycomb lattice. We also identify potential avenues for detecting the magnetic monopoles in a regime of slow-moving monopoles. The interest in this model system is further enhanced by its large degree of tunability and the ease of probing it in experiment: With varying magnetic fields at different temperatures, geometric properties-including even the effective dimensionality of the system-can be varied. By monitoring magnetization, spin correlations or zero-field NMR, the dynamical properties of the system can be extracted in considerable detail. This establishes spin ice as a laboratory of choice for the study of tunable, slow dynamics.
AB - We present nonequilibrium physics in spin ice as a unique setting that combines kinematic constraints, emergent topological defects, and magnetic long-range Coulomb interactions. In spin ice, magnetic frustration leads to highly degenerate yet locally constrained ground states. Together, they form a highly unusual magnetic state-a "Coulomb phase"-whose excitations are point-like defects-magnetic monopoles-in the absence of which effectively no dynamics is possible. Hence, when they are sparse at low temperature, dynamics becomes very sluggish. When quenching the system from a monopole-rich to a monopole-poor state, a wealth of dynamical phenomena occur, the exposition of which is the subject of this article. Most notably, we find reaction diffusion behavior, slow dynamics owing to kinematic constraints, as well as a regime corresponding to the deposition of interacting dimers on a honeycomb lattice. We also identify potential avenues for detecting the magnetic monopoles in a regime of slow-moving monopoles. The interest in this model system is further enhanced by its large degree of tunability and the ease of probing it in experiment: With varying magnetic fields at different temperatures, geometric properties-including even the effective dimensionality of the system-can be varied. By monitoring magnetization, spin correlations or zero-field NMR, the dynamical properties of the system can be extracted in considerable detail. This establishes spin ice as a laboratory of choice for the study of tunable, slow dynamics.
KW - Frustrated magnetism
KW - Kinetically constrained models
KW - Nonequilibrium dynamics and quenches
KW - Reaction-diffusion processes
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U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1317631111
DO - 10.1073/pnas.1317631111
M3 - Article
C2 - 24379372
AN - SCOPUS:84892620486
VL - 111
SP - 640
EP - 645
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
SN - 0027-8424
IS - 2
ER -