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Possible observation of quantum spin-nematic phase in a frustrated magnet
Water freezes into ice in winter and evaporates into vapor in summer. Scientifically, the transformations between solid, liquid, and gas are called phase transitions and can be classified through the changes in symmetry which occur in each case. A fourth phase of matter was discovered late in the 19...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
National Academy of Sciences
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6561203/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31072923 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1821969116 |
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author | Kohama, Yoshimitsu Ishikawa, Hajime Matsuo, Akira Kindo, Koichi Shannon, Nic Hiroi, Zenji |
author_facet | Kohama, Yoshimitsu Ishikawa, Hajime Matsuo, Akira Kindo, Koichi Shannon, Nic Hiroi, Zenji |
author_sort | Kohama, Yoshimitsu |
collection | PubMed |
description | Water freezes into ice in winter and evaporates into vapor in summer. Scientifically, the transformations between solid, liquid, and gas are called phase transitions and can be classified through the changes in symmetry which occur in each case. A fourth phase of matter was discovered late in the 19th century: the liquid crystal nematic, in which rod- or disk-shaped molecules align like the atoms in a solid, while continuing to flow like a liquid. Here we report thermodynamic evidence of a quantum analog of the classical nematic phase, the quantum spin nematic (SN). In an SN, the spins of a quantum magnet select a common axis, like a nematic liquid crystal, while escaping conventional magnetic order. Our state-of-the-art thermal measurements in high pulsed magnetic fields up to 33 T on the copper mineral volborthite with spin 1/2 on a frustrated lattice provide thermodynamic evidence for SN order, half a century after the theoretical proposal [Blume M, Hsieh YY (1969) J Appl Phys 40:1249; Andreev AF, Grishchuk IA (1984) J Exp Theor Phys 97:467–475]. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6561203 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | National Academy of Sciences |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-65612032019-06-17 Possible observation of quantum spin-nematic phase in a frustrated magnet Kohama, Yoshimitsu Ishikawa, Hajime Matsuo, Akira Kindo, Koichi Shannon, Nic Hiroi, Zenji Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Physical Sciences Water freezes into ice in winter and evaporates into vapor in summer. Scientifically, the transformations between solid, liquid, and gas are called phase transitions and can be classified through the changes in symmetry which occur in each case. A fourth phase of matter was discovered late in the 19th century: the liquid crystal nematic, in which rod- or disk-shaped molecules align like the atoms in a solid, while continuing to flow like a liquid. Here we report thermodynamic evidence of a quantum analog of the classical nematic phase, the quantum spin nematic (SN). In an SN, the spins of a quantum magnet select a common axis, like a nematic liquid crystal, while escaping conventional magnetic order. Our state-of-the-art thermal measurements in high pulsed magnetic fields up to 33 T on the copper mineral volborthite with spin 1/2 on a frustrated lattice provide thermodynamic evidence for SN order, half a century after the theoretical proposal [Blume M, Hsieh YY (1969) J Appl Phys 40:1249; Andreev AF, Grishchuk IA (1984) J Exp Theor Phys 97:467–475]. National Academy of Sciences 2019-05-28 2019-05-09 /pmc/articles/PMC6561203/ /pubmed/31072923 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1821969116 Text en Copyright © 2019 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Physical Sciences Kohama, Yoshimitsu Ishikawa, Hajime Matsuo, Akira Kindo, Koichi Shannon, Nic Hiroi, Zenji Possible observation of quantum spin-nematic phase in a frustrated magnet |
title | Possible observation of quantum spin-nematic phase in a frustrated magnet |
title_full | Possible observation of quantum spin-nematic phase in a frustrated magnet |
title_fullStr | Possible observation of quantum spin-nematic phase in a frustrated magnet |
title_full_unstemmed | Possible observation of quantum spin-nematic phase in a frustrated magnet |
title_short | Possible observation of quantum spin-nematic phase in a frustrated magnet |
title_sort | possible observation of quantum spin-nematic phase in a frustrated magnet |
topic | Physical Sciences |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6561203/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31072923 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1821969116 |
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