Broken translational symmetry in an emergent paramagnetic phase of graphene

Abstract

We show that the spin-density wave state on the partially filled honeycomb and triangular lattices is preempted by a paramagnetic phase that breaks an emergent Z_4 symmetry of the system, associated with the four inequivalent arrangements of spins in the quadrupled unit cell. Unlike other emergent paramagnetic phases in itinerant and localized-spin systems, this state preserves the rotational symmetry of the lattice but breaks its translational symmetry, giving rise to a super-lattice structure that can be detected by scanning tunneling microscopy. This emergent phase also has distinctive signatures in the magnetic spectrum that can be probed experimentally.

7 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (6)

• The electronic properties of graphene
• Evidence for an electron nematic phase transition in underdoped iron pnictide superconductors
• Formation of a Nematic Fluid at High Fields in Sr3Ru2O7
• Scalar spin chirality and quantum Hall effect on a triangular lattice
• Kohn-Luttinger superconductivity in graphene
• Pomeranchuk instability in doped graphene

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• Spin vestigial orders in extended Heisenberg-Kitaev models near hidden SU(2) points: Application to Na${}_2$Co${}_2$TeO${}_6$
• Half-metallic magnetization plateaux