Anisotropic skyrmion liquid phase
Abstract
The nature of the melting transition in two-dimensional systems of particles has attracted considerable research attention since the development of Kosterlitz-Thouless-Halperin-Nelson-Young (KTHNY) theory. The hexatic phase proposed by this theory has been recently identified experimentally in ensembles of magnetic skyrmions, quasiparticles formed in a magnetically ordered crystal. Here, we use quasiparticle dynamical simulations to study how the anisotropy of the skyrmion-skyrmion interactions induced by the atomic lattice influences the melting transition. For isotropic interactions, we find a transition from a solid phase through a hexatic phase stable in a narrow temperature range to an isotropic liquid phase. However, if the interactions between skyrmions are forced to be anisotropic by the atomic lattice, then a direct solid-liquid transition can be observed with orientational order persisting up to temperatures of 30 K in the liquid phase.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2603.02997,
title = {Anisotropic skyrmion liquid phase},
author = {Daniel Schick and Tim Matthies and Thomas Mutschler and Levente Rózsa and Ulrich Nowak},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.02997},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
9 pages, 8 figures, submitted to physical review research