Abstract
A phase transition occurs when correlated regions of a new phase grow to span the system and the fluctuations within the correlated regions become long lived. Here, we present neutron scattering measurements showing that this conventional picture must be replaced in YFe2Al10, a compound that forms naturally very close to a T = 0 quantum phase transition. Fully quantum mechanical fluctuations of localized moments are found to diverge at low energies and temperatures; however, the fluctuating moments are entirely without spatial correlations. Zero temperature order in YFe2Al10 is achieved by an entirely local type of quantum phase transition that may originate with the creation of the moments themselves.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 6995-6999 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |
Volume | 115 |
Issue number | 27 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 3 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2018 National Academy of Sciences. All Rights Reserved.
Keywords
- Magnetism
- Neutron scattering
- Quantum matter
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General