Semi-classical Approach to Quantum Spin Ice

Abstract

We propose a semi-classical description of the low-energy properties of quantum spin ice in the strong Ising limit. Within the framework of a semiclassical, perturbative Villain expansion, that can be truncated at arbitrary order, we give an analytic and quantitative treatment of the deconfining phase. We find that photon-photon interactions significantly renormalise the speed of light and split the two transverse photon polarisations at intermediate wavevectors. We calculate the photon velocity and the ground state energy to first and second order in perturbation theory, respectively. The former is in good agreement with recent numerical simulations.

11 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (6)

• Pyrochlore Photons: The U(1) Spin Liquid in a S=1/2 Three-Dimensional Frustrated Magnet
• Dynamically-Induced Frustration as a Route to a Quantum Spin Ice State in Tb2Ti2O7 via Virtual Crystal Field Excitations and Quantum Many-Body Effects
• Three dimensional resonating valence bond liquids and their excitations
• Unusual liquid state of hard-core bosons on the pyrochlore lattice
• Bosonic Many-body Theory of Quantum Spin Ice
• Free coherent spinons in quantum square ice

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• Seeing beyond the light: Vison and photon electrodynamics in quantum spin ice
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• Dynamical Axions in $U(1)$ Quantum Spin Liquids
• 2-Form U(1) Spin Liquids: Classical Model and Quantum Aspects
• Vison crystal in quantum spin ice on the breathing pyrochlore lattice
• Generalised route to effective field theories for quantum systems with local constraints
• Theta electromagnetism in quantum spin ice: Microscopic analysis of improper symmetries
• Hearing the light: stray-field noise from the emergent photon in quantum spin ice