Peering into the darkness: vison-generated photon mass in quantum spin ice

Abstract

Describing experimental signatures of quantum spin ice has been the focus of many theoretical efforts, as definitive experimental verification of this candidate quantum spin liquid is yet to be achieved. Gapped excitations known as visons have largely eluded those efforts. We provide a theoretical framework, which captures their dynamics and predicts new signatures in the magnetic response. We achieve this by studying the ring-exchange Hamiltonian of quantum spin ice in the large-$s$ approximation, taking into account the compact nature of the emergent $U(1)$ gauge theory. We find the stationary solutions of the action -- the instantons -- which correspond to visons tunneling between lattice sites. By integrating out the instantons, we calculate the effective vison Hamiltonian, including their mass. We show that in the ground state virtual vison pairs simply renormalise the speed of light. At low temperatures, however, thermally activated visons form a Debye plasma and introduce a mass gap in the photon spectrum, equal to the plasma frequency, which we calculate as a function of temperature. We demonstrate that this dynamical mass gap should be visible in energy-resolved neutron scattering spectra but not in the energy-integrated ones. We also show that it does not lead to confinement of static spinons.

References in corpus (26)

• Anyons in an exactly solved model and beyond
• Majorana quantization and half-integer thermal quantum Hall effect in a Kitaev spin liquid
• Proximate Kitaev Quantum Spin Liquid Behaviour in α-RuCl${}_3$
• Neutron tomography of magnetic Majorana fermions in a proximate quantum spin liquid
• Pyrochlore Photons: The U(1) Spin Liquid in a S=1/2 Three-Dimensional Frustrated Magnet
• A Field Guide to Spin Liquids
• Quantum Spin Ice: A Search for Gapless Quantum Spin Liquids in Pyrochlore Magnets
• Excitations in the field-induced quantum spin liquid state of alpha-RuCl3
• Coulombic Quantum Liquids in Spin-1/2 Pyrochlores
• Seeing the light : experimental signatures of emergent electromagnetism in a quantum spin ice
• Generic quantum spin ice
• Quantum Ice : a quantum Monte Carlo study
• Unusual liquid state of hard-core bosons on the pyrochlore lattice
• Electric dipoles on magnetic monopoles in spin ice
• Numerical evidence of quantum melting of spin ice: quantum-classical crossover
• Bosonic Many-body Theory of Quantum Spin Ice
• Dynamics of Topological Excitations in a Model Quantum Spin Ice
• Magnetic monopole condensation in pyrochlore ice quantum spin liquid: application to Pr2Ir2O7 and Yb2Ti2O7
• Spin Liquid Regimes at Nonzero Temperature in Quantum Spin Ice
• Quantum spin ice with frustrated transverse exchange: from pi-flux phase to nematic quantum spin liquid
• Dirac's "magnetic monopole" in pyrochlore ice U(1) spin liquids: Spectrum and classification
• Coulomb liquid phases of bosonic cluster Mott insulators on a pyrochlore lattice
• Electric field control of emergent electrodynamics in quantum spin ice
• Semi-classical Approach to Quantum Spin Ice
• Seeing beyond the light: Vison and photon electrodynamics in quantum spin ice
• Magnetic Monopole Supercurrent through a Quantum Spin Ice Tunnel Junction

Cited by in corpus (8)

• The case for a U(1)${}_{\pi }$ Quantum Spin Liquid Ground State in the Dipole-Octupole Pyrochlore Ce${}_2$Zr${}_2$O${}_7$
• The Emergent Fine Structure Constant of Quantum Spin Ice Is Large
• Finite Temperature Dynamics in 0-Flux and $\pi$-Flux Quantum Spin Ice: Self-Consistent Exclusive Boson Approach
• Dipolar-octupolar correlations and hierarchy of exchange interactions in Ce${}_2$Hf${}_2$O${}_7$
• Two-Peak Heat Capacity Accounts for $R\ln (2)$ Entropy and Ground State Access in the Dipole-Octupole Pyrochlore Ce${}_2$Hf${}_2$O${}_7$
• Vison crystal in quantum spin ice on the breathing pyrochlore lattice
• Quantum Spin Liquids in Pyrochlore Magnets With Non-Kramers Local Moments
• Quantum Spin Liquids Stabilized by Disorder in Non-Kramers Pyrochlores