English

Critical fluctuations and conserved dynamics in a strange ferromagnetic metal

Strongly Correlated Electrons 2026-01-01 v1

Abstract

The origin of the strange metallic behavior observed in a wide range of quantum materials is an open challenge to condensed matter physics. Historically, strange metals were uniquely associated with antiferromagnetic quantum critical points (QCPs), but a new generation of materials reveals their association with uniform order parameters, such as ferromagnetism, valley or nematic order, suggesting a deeper common denominator. At a QCP, order parameter fluctuations are characterized by the dynamical critical exponent zz, which quantifies the space-time scaling asymmetry. Here, we report the observation of a divergence in the Gr\"uneisen ratio at the QCP of the strange-metal ferromagnet CeRh6_6Ge4_4 with a dynamical critical exponent z=3z=3, signaling that the underlying quantum singularity involves a conserved degree of freedom. Yet the magnetization of this easy-plane ferromagnet is not conserved. We argue that the z=3z=3 strange criticality requires a description beyond the Landau paradigm, proposing a link with the gauge modes of the small-to-large Fermi surface transition and the associated gauge charge of the delocalizing heavy electrons.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2510.20352,
  title  = {Critical fluctuations and conserved dynamics in a strange ferromagnetic metal},
  author = {Jin Zhan and Yongjun Zhang and Jiawen Zhang and Yu Liu and Zhiyong Nie and Yuxin Chen and Lin Jiao and Yashar Komijani and Michael Smidman and Frank Steglich and Piers Coleman and Huiqiu Yuan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.20352},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

7 pages, 4 figures