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Dynamical magnetism in the disordered cubic lattice material $\gamma$-${\rm Ba}_{3}{\rm CoNb}_{2}{\rm O}_{9}$

Strongly Correlated Electrons 2026-04-22 v1 Materials Science

Abstract

γ\gamma-Ba3CoNb2O9{\rm Ba}_{3}{\rm CoNb}_{2}{\rm O}_{9} realizes a disordered simple-cubic spin-1/21/2 lattice in which Co2+^{2+} ions randomly occupy one third of the sites, placing the system close to the site-percolation threshold for magnetic order. Specific-heat, susceptibility, neutron spin-echo, and muon spin-rotation measurements reveal a broad thermodynamic crossover, short-range magnetic correlations, and persistent fast spin dynamics down to at least 0.1~K, with no evidence for static order or conventional spin-glass freezing. Monte Carlo simulations yield a broad distribution of orphan spins, finite clusters, and an infinite network. The calculated orphan-spin fraction (8.8%\approx 8.8\%) agrees well with the weakly correlated spin fraction inferred from magnetization (8.2%\approx 8.2\%). Exact diagonalization of a diluted S=1/2S = 1/2 Heisenberg model captures the broad magnetic specific-heat anomaly and supports the coexistence of weakly and strongly correlated spin environments. These results support a picture in which spin-1/21/2 quantum fluctuations, together with dilution and proximity to the percolation threshold, can support a disorder-driven dynamical state with short-range correlations in three dimensions, distinct from both classical spin glasses and geometrically frustrated quantum spin liquids.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2604.18794,
  title  = {Dynamical magnetism in the disordered cubic lattice material $\gamma$-${\rm Ba}_{3}{\rm CoNb}_{2}{\rm O}_{9}$},
  author = {Fanjun Xu and Ralf Feyerherm and Cecilie Glittum and Thomas J. Hicken and Hubertus Luetkens and Jonas A. Krieger and Cintli Aguilar-Maldonado and Sven Luther and Lucy K. Saunders and Clemens Ritter and Peter Fouquet and Margarita Russina and Karel Prokes and A. T. M. Nazmul Islam and Bella Lake},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.18794},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

17 pages, 15 figures