Spin liquid mediated RKKY interaction

Abstract

We propose an RKKY-type interaction that is mediated by a spin liquid. If a spin liquid ground state exists such an interaction could leave a fingerprint by ordering underlying localized moments such as nuclear spins. This interaction has a unique phenomenology that is distinct from the RKKY interaction found in fermionic systems; most notably the lack of a Fermi surface and absence of the requirement for itinerant electrons, since most spin liquids are insulators. As a working example we investigate the two-dimensional spin-1/2 kagome antiferromagnet (KAFM), although the treatment remains general and can be extended to other spin liquids and dimensions. We find that several different nuclear spin orderings minimize the RKKY-type energy induced by the KAFM but are unstable due to a zero-energy flat magnon band. Despite this we show that a small magnetic field is able to gap out this magnon spectrum for some of the orderings resulting in an intricate nuclear magnetism.

Published in Scientific Reports. 13 pages, 6 figures. Supplementary material available (see journal reference)

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Cited by in corpus (7)

• Yu-Shiba-Rusinov States and Ordering of Magnetic Impurities Near the Boundary of a Superconducting Nanowire
• Limits to magnetic quantum criticality from nuclear spins
• $Z_2$ flux binding to higher-spin impurities in the Kitaev spin liquid
• RKKY interaction in one-dimensional flat-band lattices
• Magnetic order through Kondo coupling to quantum spin liquids
• Controlling the RKKY interaction and heat transport in a Kitaev spin liquid via $Z_2$ flux walls
• Spinon mediation of witness spin dynamics in herbertsmithite