Several rare earth magnetic pyrochlore materials are well modeled by a spin-1/2 quantum Hamiltonian with anisotropic exchange parameters Js. For the Er2Ti2O7 material, the Js were recently determined from high-field inelastic neutron scattering measu
rements. Here, we perform high-temperature (T) series expansions to compute the thermodynamic properties of this material using these Js. Comparison with experimental data show that the model describes the material very well including the finite temperature phase transition to an ordered phase at Tc~1.2 K. We show that high temperature expansions give identical results for different q=0 xy order parameter susceptibilities up to 8th order in beta=1/T (presumably to all orders in beta). Conversely, a non-linear susceptibility related to the 6th power of the order parameter reveals a thermal order-by-disorder selection of the same non-colinear psi_2 state as found in Er2Ti2O7.
We use numerical linked cluster (NLC) expansions to compute the specific heat, C(T), and entropy, S(T), of a quantum spin ice model of Yb2Ti2O7 using anisotropic exchange interactions recently determined from inelastic neutron scattering measurements
and find good agreement with experimental calorimetric data. In the perturbative weak quantum regime, this model has a ferrimagnetic ordered ground state, with two peaks in C(T): a Schottky anomaly signalling the paramagnetic to spin ice crossover followed at lower temperature by a sharp peak accompanying a first order phase transition to the ferrimagnetic state. We suggest that the two C(T) features observed in Yb2Ti2O7 are associated with the same physics. Spin excitations in this regime consist of weakly confined spinon-antispinon pairs. We suggest that conventional ground state with exotic quantum dynamics will prove a prevalent characteristic of many real quantum spin ice materials.
We develop high temperature series expansions for $ln{Z}$ and the uniform structure factor of the spin-half Heisenberg model on the hyperkagome lattice to order $beta^{16}$. These expansions are used to calculate the uniform susceptibility ($chi$), t
he entropy ($S$), and the heat capacity ($C$) of the model as a function of temperature. Series extrapolations of the expansions converge well down to a temperature of approximately $J/4$. A comparison with the experimental data for Na$_4$Ir$_3$O$_8$ shows that its magnetic susceptibility is reasonably well described by the model with an exchange constant $Japprox 300 K$, but there are also additional smaller terms present in the system. The specific heat of the model has two peaks. The lower temperature peak, which is just below our range of convergence contains about 40 percent of the total entropy. Despite being a 3-dimensional lattice, this model shares many features with the kagome lattice Heisenberg model and the material must be considered a strong candidate for a quantum spin-liquid.
Motivated by the observation of a disordered spin ground state in the $S=3/2$ material Bi$_3$Mn$_4$O$_{12}$NO$_3$, we study the ground state properties and excitation spectra of the $S=3/2$ (and for comparison $S=1/2$) bilayer Heisenberg model on the
honeycomb lattice, with and without frustrating further neighbor interactions. We use series expansions around the Neel state to calculate properties of the magnetically ordered phase. Furthermore, series expansions in $1/lambda=J_1/J_{perp}$, where $J_1$ is an in-plane exchange constant and $J_perp$ is the exchange constant between the layers are used to study properties of the spin singlet phase. For the unfrustrated case, our results for the phase transitions are in very good agreement with recent Quantum Monte Carlo studies. We also obtain the excitation spectra in the disordered phase and study the change in the critical $lambda$ when frustrating exchange interactions are added to the $S=3/2$ system and find a rapid suppression of the ordered phase with frustration. Implications for the material Bi$_3$Mn$_4$O$_{12}$NO$_3$ are discussed.
