Numerous experiments on pyrochlore oxides Pr2(Zr, Sn, Hf, Ir)2O7 with non-Kramers Pr3+ ions suggest that they support a quantum spin liquid (QSL) ground state, but the precise nature of the QSL remains unclear. Quantum spin ice with dominant dipolar Ising and smaller quadrupolar transverse exchange interactions is one such candidate, but a dominant inelastic neutron scattering signal suggests that such a picture may not be consistent with experimental results. The microscopic exchange couplings of these compounds are also not known, leaving room for many possible QSL states. In this work, we use Schwinger boson mean-field theory supplemented by a projective symmetry group classification to study possible Z2 QSLs in pyrochlore magnets with dipolar-quadrupolar non-Kramers local moments. We build a mean-field phase diagram and find four QSLs in the frustrated region of parameter space that are consistent with inelastic signals observed in neutron scattering data on Pr2Zr2O7 and Pr2Hf2O7. Among these, two robust QSLs occur in the regime with dominant transverse exchange rather than Ising exchange. We then compute the static and dynamic spin structure factors for these QSL candidates, which can be used to distinguish them in neutron scattering experiments.
@article{arxiv.2505.18250,
title = {Quantum Spin Liquids in Pyrochlore Magnets With Non-Kramers Local Moments},
author = {Tony An and Félix Desrochers and Yong Baek Kim},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.18250},
year = {2025}
}