English

Replica symmetry breaking in the RKKY skyrmion crystal system

Strongly Correlated Electrons 2021-12-08 v1 Disordered Systems and Neural Networks Statistical Mechanics

Abstract

We study the RKKY Heisenberg model on a three-dimensional stacked-triangular lattice under magnetic fields by extensive Monte Carlo simulations to get insight into the chiral-degenerate symmetric skyrmion crystal (SkX) in centrosymmetric metallic magnets. The triple-qq SkX state and the double-qq states are realized, together with the single-qq state. We find an unexpected phenomenon of the replica-symmetry breaking (RSB) well-known in glassy systems, although the Hamiltonian and the ordered state are entirely regular. In the RSB SkX phase, the triple-qq SkX state macroscopically coexists with the single-qq state, in spite of the fact that these ordered states cannot be transformed via any Hamiltonian-symmetry operation. In the thermodynamic limit, the free energies of these states are degenerate whereas the free-energy barrier between the states diverges, breaking the ergodicity. A similar RSB is observed also in the RSB double-qq phase where the double-qq state macroscopically coexists with the single-qq state. Experimental implications are discussed.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2108.11585,
  title  = {Replica symmetry breaking in the RKKY skyrmion crystal system},
  author = {Kota Mitsumoto and Hikaru Kawamura},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2108.11585},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

19 pages, 22 figures