Nonmagnetic Ground State of Rutile RuO$_2$ from Diffusion Quantum Monte Carlo

Jeonghwan Ahn; Seoung-Hun Kang; Panchapakesan Ganesh; Jaron T. Krogel

Nonmagnetic Ground State of Rutile RuO$_2$ from Diffusion Quantum Monte Carlo

Materials Science 2026-03-18 v1

Authors: Jeonghwan Ahn , Seoung-Hun Kang , Panchapakesan Ganesh , Jaron T. Krogel

Abstract

Rutile RuO $_2$ has been proposed as an altermagnet, but its bulk magnetic ground state is still under debate because density-functional calculations give conflicting predictions. Using fixed-node diffusion quantum Monte Carlo, we find that stoichiometric bulk RuO $_2$ is nonmagnetic in the pristine structure, lying 23(9) meV per formula unit below the lowest antiferromagnetic state considered. A 3 $\%$ compressive strain instead stabilizes antiferromagnetism, placing RuO $_2$ near a strain-tunable magnetic instability and helping reconcile apparently conflicting experimental reports.

Keywords

quantum monte carlo rutile ruO2 magnetic ground state diffusion quantum monte carlo strain tuning altermagnet

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.16125,
  title  = {Nonmagnetic Ground State of Rutile RuO$_2$ from Diffusion Quantum Monte Carlo},
  author = {Jeonghwan Ahn and Seoung-Hun Kang and Panchapakesan Ganesh and Jaron T. Krogel},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.16125},
  year   = {2026}
}

Nonmagnetic Ground State of Rutile RuO$_2$ from Diffusion Quantum Monte Carlo

Abstract

Keywords

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