English

Phonon Dichroisms Revealing Unusual Electronic Quantum Geometry

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2025-11-21 v1

Abstract

The quantum geometry tensor, intrinsic geometric characteristics of electronic states, plays a crucial role in the various nontrivial electromagnetic phenomena in quantum materials. Here, we reveal that quantum geometry significantly modifies phonon dichroisms through electron-phonon interactions in solids that break time-reversal and spatial inversion symmetries. Specifically, the circular phonon dichroism is primarily dominated by the heat magnetic moments, while the linear phonon dichroism depends on the heat Drude weight, a thermal analog of band Drude weight. Furthermore, we establish the f-sum rule for the heat magnetic moment that facilitates its experimental detections. We demonstrate our key findings in an archetypal model system: ferromagnetic two-dimensional electron gases with Rashba spin-orbit coupling. Our work uncovers the quantum-geometric origin of common phonon dichroisms and predicts the detectable signature of the heat magnetic moment of electrons in solids.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2511.16141,
  title  = {Phonon Dichroisms Revealing Unusual Electronic Quantum Geometry},
  author = {Ding Li and Guoao Yang and Tao Qin and Jianhui Zhou and Yugui Yao},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.16141},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

4 figures, 1 table, 6 pages. Comments are welcome

R2 v1 2026-07-01T07:46:49.319Z