English

Finite-temperature behavior of a classical spin-orbit-coupled model for $\textrm{YbMgGaO}_4$ with and without bond disorder

Strongly Correlated Electrons 2018-05-14 v3

Abstract

We present the results of finite-temperature classical Monte Carlo simulations of a strongly spin-orbit-coupled nearest-neighbor triangular-lattice model for the candidate U(1)\mathrm{U}(1) quantum spin liquid YbMgGaO4\mathrm{YbMgGaO}_4 at large system sizes. We find a single continuous finite-temperature stripe-ordering transition with slowly diverging heat capacity that completely breaks the sixfold ground-state degeneracy, despite the absence of a known conformal field theory describing such a transition. We also simulate the effect of random-bond disorder in the model, and find that even weak bond disorder destroys the transition by fragmenting the system into very large domains -- possibly explaining the lack of observed ordering in the real material. The Imry-Ma argument only partially explains this fragility to disorder, and we extend the argument with a physical explanation for the preservation of our system's time-reversal symmetry even under a disorder model that preserves the same symmetry.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1801.06941,
  title  = {Finite-temperature behavior of a classical spin-orbit-coupled model for $\textrm{YbMgGaO}_4$ with and without bond disorder},
  author = {Edward Parker and Leon Balents},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1801.06941},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

16 pages, 13 figures