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Correlation holes and slow dynamics induced by fractional statistics in gapped quantum spin liquids.

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Wan, Yuan 
Castelnovo, Claudio  ORCID logo  https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1752-6343

Abstract

Realistic model Hamiltonians for quantum spin liquids frequently exhibit a large separation of energy scales between their elementary excitations. At intermediate, experimentally relevant temperatures, some excitations are sparse and hop coherently, whereas others are thermally incoherent and dense. Here, we study the interplay of two such species of quasiparticle, dubbed spinons and visons, which are subject to nontrivial mutual statistics - one of the hallmarks of quantum spin liquid behaviour. Our results for [Formula: see text] quantum spin liquids show an intriguing feedback mechanism, akin to the Nagaoka effect, whereby spinons become localised on temperature-dependent patches of expelled visons. This phenomenon has important consequences for the thermodynamic and transport properties of the system, as well as for its response to quenches in temperature. We argue that these effects can be measured in experiments and may provide viable avenues for obtaining signatures of quantum spin liquid behaviour.

Description

Keywords

5108 Quantum Physics, 51 Physical Sciences

Journal Title

Nat Commun

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2041-1723
2041-1723

Volume Title

12

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Rights

All rights reserved
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/K028960/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/M007065/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/P034616/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/P020259/1)
EPSRC (EP/T028580/1)