Spinon confinement and a sharp longitudinal mode in Yb2Pt2Pb in magnetic fields

W. J. Gannon; I. A. Zaliznyak; L. S. Wu; A. E. Feiguin; A. M. Tsvelik; F. Demmel; Y. Qiu; J. R.D. Copley; M. S. Kim; M. C. Aronson

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-08715-y

Spinon confinement and a sharp longitudinal mode in Yb₂Pt₂Pb in magnetic fields

W. J. Gannon
, I. A. Zaliznyak
, L. S. Wu
, A. E. Feiguin
, A. M. Tsvelik
, F. Demmel
, Y. Qiu
, J. R.D. Copley
, M. S. Kim
, M. C. Aronson

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

38 Scopus citations

Abstract

The fundamental excitations in an antiferromagnetic chain of spins-1/2 are spinons, de-confined fractional quasiparticles that when combined in pairs, form a triplet excitation continuum. In an Ising-like spin chain the continuum is gapped and the ground state is Néel ordered. Here, we report high resolution neutron scattering experiments, which reveal how a magnetic field closes this gap and drives the spin chains in Yb₂Pt₂Pb to a critical, disordered Luttinger-liquid state. In Yb₂Pt₂Pb the effective spins-1/2 describe the dynamics of large, Ising-like Yb magnetic moments, ensuring that the measured excitations are exclusively longitudinal, which we find to be well described by time-dependent density matrix renormalization group calculations. The inter-chain coupling leads to the confinement of spinons, a condensed matter analog of quark confinement in quantum chromodynamics. Insensitive to transverse fluctuations, our measurements show how a gapless, dispersive longitudinal mode arises from confinement and evolves with magnetic order.

Original language	English
Article number	1123
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	10
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-08715-y
State	Published - Dec 1 2019

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, The Author(s).

Funding

Work at Texas A&M University (W.J.G. and M.C.A) was supported by NSF-DMR-1310008. Work at Brookhaven National Laboratory (I.A.Z. and A.M.T.) was supported under the auspices of the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under contract DE-SC00112704. Work at Northeastern University (A.E.F.) was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences grant number DE-SC0014407. Work at the ISIS neutron source was partly supported by the Science and Technology Facilities Council, STFC. Access to DCS was provided by the Center for High Resolution Neutron Scattering, a partnership between the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Science Foundation under Agreement No. DMR-1508249. We thank S.E. Nagler and R. Vega-Morales for helpful discussions about this work.

Funders	Funder number
Science and Technology Facilities Council
U.S. Department of Energy
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Office of Science Programs
Northeastern University, China
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL)
National Science Foundation Arctic Social Science Program	DMR-1508249, 1807451
UK Industrial Decarbonization Research and Innovation Centre	103601
DOE Basic Energy Sciences	DE-SC00112704, DE-SC0014407
Texas AandM University	NSF-DMR-1310008

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Chemistry
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
General
General Physics and Astronomy

Access to Document

10.1038/s41467-019-08715-y

Cite this

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title = "Spinon confinement and a sharp longitudinal mode in Yb2Pt2Pb in magnetic fields",

abstract = "The fundamental excitations in an antiferromagnetic chain of spins-1/2 are spinons, de-confined fractional quasiparticles that when combined in pairs, form a triplet excitation continuum. In an Ising-like spin chain the continuum is gapped and the ground state is N{\'e}el ordered. Here, we report high resolution neutron scattering experiments, which reveal how a magnetic field closes this gap and drives the spin chains in Yb2Pt2Pb to a critical, disordered Luttinger-liquid state. In Yb2Pt2Pb the effective spins-1/2 describe the dynamics of large, Ising-like Yb magnetic moments, ensuring that the measured excitations are exclusively longitudinal, which we find to be well described by time-dependent density matrix renormalization group calculations. The inter-chain coupling leads to the confinement of spinons, a condensed matter analog of quark confinement in quantum chromodynamics. Insensitive to transverse fluctuations, our measurements show how a gapless, dispersive longitudinal mode arises from confinement and evolves with magnetic order.",

author = "Gannon, \{W. J.\} and Zaliznyak, \{I. A.\} and Wu, \{L. S.\} and Feiguin, \{A. E.\} and Tsvelik, \{A. M.\} and F. Demmel and Y. Qiu and Copley, \{J. R.D.\} and Kim, \{M. S.\} and Aronson, \{M. C.\}",

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AU - Gannon, W. J.

AU - Zaliznyak, I. A.

AU - Wu, L. S.

AU - Feiguin, A. E.

AU - Tsvelik, A. M.

AU - Demmel, F.

AU - Qiu, Y.

AU - Copley, J. R.D.

AU - Kim, M. S.

AU - Aronson, M. C.

PY - 2019/12/1

Y1 - 2019/12/1

N2 - The fundamental excitations in an antiferromagnetic chain of spins-1/2 are spinons, de-confined fractional quasiparticles that when combined in pairs, form a triplet excitation continuum. In an Ising-like spin chain the continuum is gapped and the ground state is Néel ordered. Here, we report high resolution neutron scattering experiments, which reveal how a magnetic field closes this gap and drives the spin chains in Yb2Pt2Pb to a critical, disordered Luttinger-liquid state. In Yb2Pt2Pb the effective spins-1/2 describe the dynamics of large, Ising-like Yb magnetic moments, ensuring that the measured excitations are exclusively longitudinal, which we find to be well described by time-dependent density matrix renormalization group calculations. The inter-chain coupling leads to the confinement of spinons, a condensed matter analog of quark confinement in quantum chromodynamics. Insensitive to transverse fluctuations, our measurements show how a gapless, dispersive longitudinal mode arises from confinement and evolves with magnetic order.

AB - The fundamental excitations in an antiferromagnetic chain of spins-1/2 are spinons, de-confined fractional quasiparticles that when combined in pairs, form a triplet excitation continuum. In an Ising-like spin chain the continuum is gapped and the ground state is Néel ordered. Here, we report high resolution neutron scattering experiments, which reveal how a magnetic field closes this gap and drives the spin chains in Yb2Pt2Pb to a critical, disordered Luttinger-liquid state. In Yb2Pt2Pb the effective spins-1/2 describe the dynamics of large, Ising-like Yb magnetic moments, ensuring that the measured excitations are exclusively longitudinal, which we find to be well described by time-dependent density matrix renormalization group calculations. The inter-chain coupling leads to the confinement of spinons, a condensed matter analog of quark confinement in quantum chromodynamics. Insensitive to transverse fluctuations, our measurements show how a gapless, dispersive longitudinal mode arises from confinement and evolves with magnetic order.

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