Observing Monopoles in a Magnetic Analog of Ice

Abstract

This is a nontechnical Perspective commentary on two recent neutron scattering experiments (Science 326, 415 (2009) and Science 326, 411 (2009)) reporting evidence for the validity of a "Coulomb phase" description of the low-temperature regime of frustrated spin ice magnetic materials as well as the existence of topological defect (monopole-like) excitations in these systems.

3 pages, 1 figure

References in corpus (5)

• Pyrochlore Photons: The U(1) Spin Liquid in a S=1/2 Three-Dimensional Frustrated Magnet
• Dirac Strings and Magnetic Monopoles in Spin Ice Dy2Ti2O7
• Dynamically-Induced Frustration as a Route to a Quantum Spin Ice State in Tb2Ti2O7 via Virtual Crystal Field Excitations and Quantum Many-Body Effects
• Dy2Ti2O7 Spin Ice: a Test Case for Emergent Clusters in a Frustrated Magnet
• Pinch Points and Kasteleyn Transitions: How Spin Ice Changes its Entropy

Cited by in corpus (15)

• Spectral analysis of topological defects in an artificial spin-ice lattice
• Incommensurate antiferromagnetic order in the manifoldly-frustrated SrTb${}_2$O${}_4$ with transition temperature up to 4.28 K
• An irreversible magnetic-field dependence of low-temperature heat transport of spin-ice compound Dy_2Ti_2O_7 in a [111] field
• Magnetization, crystal structure and anisotropic thermal expansion of single-crystal SrEr2O4
• States in non-associative quantum mechanics: Uncertainty relations and semiclassical evolution
• Competing quantum spin liquids, gauge fluctuations, and anisotropic interactions in a breathing pyrochlore lattice
• Experimental identification of electric dipoles induced by magnetic monopoles in Tb2Ti2O7
• Superconducting phase transition reveals an electromagnetic coupling to a scalar field potential that generates mechanical work
• Proton strings and rings in atypical nucleation of ferroelectricity in ice
• Magnetization beyond the Ising limit of Ho${}_2$Ti${}_2$O${}_7$
• 2-Form U(1) Spin Liquids: Classical Model and Quantum Aspects
• Coulombic antiferromagnet in spin-1/2 pyrochlores with dipole-octupole doublets
• Synthetic half-integer magnetic monopole and single-vortex dynamics in spherical Bose-Einstein condensates
• Low-temperature high-frequency dynamic magnetic susceptibility of classical spin-ice Dy${}_2$Ti${}_2$O${}_7$
• The Maxwell--Born--Infeld Theory: Presence of Finite-Energy Electric Point Charge and Absence of Monopole and Dyon