No Arabic abstract
Since their proposal nearly half a century ago, physicists have sought axions in both high energy and condensed matter settings. Despite intense and growing efforts, to date experimental success has been limited, with the most prominent results arising in the context of topological insulators. Here we propose a novel mechanism whereby axions can be realized in quantum spin liquids. We discuss the necessary symmetry requirements and identify possible experimental realizations in candidate pyrochlore materials, such as ${text{Ba}_{3}text{Yb}_{2}text{Zn}_{5}text{O}_{11}}$. In this context, the axions couple both to the external and to the emergent electromagnetic fields. We show that the interaction between the axion and the emergent photon leads to a characteristic dynamical response, which can be measured experimentally in inelastic neutron scattering. This work sets the stage for studying axion electrodynamics in the highly tunable setting of frustrated magnets.
We calculate the effect of the emergent photon on threshold production of spinons in $U(1)$ Coulomb spin liquids such as quantum spin ice. The emergent Coulomb interaction modifies the threshold production cross-section dramatically, changing the weak turn-on expected from the density of states to an abrupt onset reflecting the basic coupling parameters. The slow photon typical in existing lattice models and materials suppresses the intensity at finite momentum and allows profuse Cerenkov radiation beyond a critical momentum. These features are broadly consistent with recent numerical and experimental results.
Motivated by the recent synthesis of the spin-1 A-site spinel NiRh$_{text 2}$O$_{text 4}$, we investigate the classical to quantum crossover of a frustrated $J_1$-$J_2$ Heisenberg model on the diamond lattice upon varying the spin length $S$. Applying a recently developed pseudospin functional renormalization group (pf-FRG) approach for arbitrary spin-$S$ magnets, we find that systems with $S geq 3/2$ reside in the classical regime where the low-temperature physics is dominated by the formation of coplanar spirals and a thermal (order-by-disorder) transition. For smaller local moments $S$=1 or $S$=1/2 we find that the system evades a thermal ordering transition and forms a quantum spiral spin liquid where the fluctuations are restricted to characteristic momentum-space surfaces. For the tetragonal phase of NiRh$_{text 2}$O$_{text 4}$, a modified $J_1$-$J_2^-$-$J_2^perp$ exchange model is found to favor a conventionally ordered Neel state (for arbitrary spin $S$) even in the presence of a strong local single-ion spin anisotropy and it requires additional sources of frustration to explain the experimentally observed absence of a thermal ordering transition.
Inspired by recent studies of high-scale decay constant or flavorful QCD axions, we review and clarify their existence in effective string models with anomalous $U(1)$ gauge groups. We find that such models, when coupled to charged scalars getting vacuum expectation values, always have one light axion, whose mass can only come from nonperturbative effects. If the main nonperturbative effect is from QCD, then it becomes a Peccei-Quinn axion candidate for solving the strong CP problem. We then study simple models with universal Green-Schwarz mechanism and only one charged scalar field: in the minimal gaugino condensation case the axion mass is tied to the supersymmetry breaking scale and cannot be light enough, but slightly refined models maintain a massless axion all the way down to the QCD scale. Both kinds of models can be extended to yield intermediate scale axion decay constants. Finally, we gauge flavorful axion models under an anomalous $U(1)$ and discuss the axion couplings which arise.
We study the response of critical Resonating Valence Bond (RVB) spin liquids to doping with longer-range singlets, and more generally of U(1)-symmetric tensor networks to non-symmetric perturbations. Using a field theory description, we find that in the RVB, doping constitutes a relevant perturbation which immediately opens up a gap, contrary to previous observations. Our analysis predicts a very large correlation length even at significant doping, which we verify using high-accuracy numerical simulations. This emphasizes the need for careful analysis, but also justifies the use of such states as a variational ansatz for critical systems. Finally, we give an example of a PEPS where non-symmetric perturbations do not open up a gap and the U(1) symmetry re-emerges.
We study disorder operator, defined as a symmetry transformation applied to a finite region, across a continuous quantum phase transition in $(2+1)d$. We show analytically that at a conformally-invariant critical point with U(1) symmetry, the disorder operator with a small U(1) rotation angle defined on a rectangle region exhibits power-law scaling with the perimeter of the rectangle. The exponent is proportional to the current central charge of the critical theory. Such a universal scaling behavior is due to the sharp corners of the region and we further obtain a general formula for the exponent when the corner is nearly smooth. To probe the full parameter regime, we carry out systematic computation of the U(1) disorder parameter in the square lattice Bose-Hubbard model across the superfluid-insulator transition with large-scale quantum Monte Carlo simulations, and confirm the presence of the universal corner correction. The exponent of the corner term determined from numerical simulations agrees well with the analytical predictions.