Emergent particles and gauge fields in quantum matter

Abstract

I give a pedagogical introduction to some of the many particles and gauge fields that can emerge in correlated matter. The standard model of materials is built on Landau's foundational principles: adiabatic continuity and spontaneous symmetry breaking. These ideas lead to quasiparticles that inherit their quantum numbers from fundamental particles, Nambu-Goldstone bosons, the Anderson-Higgs mechanism, and topological defects in order parameters. I then describe the modern discovery of physics beyond the standard model. Here, quantum correlations (entanglement) and topology play key roles in defining the properties of matter. This can lead to fractionalised quasiparticles that carry only a fraction of the quantum numbers that define fundamental particles. These particles can have exotic properties: for example Majorana fermions are their own antiparticles, anyons have exchange statistics that are neither bosonic nor fermionic, and magnetic monopoles do not occur in the vacuum. Gauge fields emerge naturally in the description of highly correlated matter and can lead to gauge bosons. Relationships to the standard model of particle physics are discussed.

Pedagogical review submitted to Contemporary Physics; 50 pages, 20 figures. Minor corrections to previous posting

References in corpus (7)

• Fractional statistics in anyon collisions
• Amplitude / Higgs Modes in Condensed Matter Physics
• Quantum frustration in organic Mott insulators: from spin liquids to unconventional superconductors
• Unified explanation of the Kadowaki-Woods ratio in strongly correlated materials
• On the Hohenberg-Mermin-Wagner theorem and its limitations
• Skyrmions in magnetic materials
• Roton-Phonon Interactions in Superfluid 4He

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Experimental signatures of quantum and topological states in frustrated magnetism
• Instabilities of heavy magnons in an anisotropic magnet
• Emergent gauge symmetries -- making symmetry as well as breaking it
• Collective nature of orbital excitations in layered cuprates in the absence of apical oxygens
• Multiple Coulomb phases with temperature tunable ice rules in pyrochlore spin crossover materials
• Topological superconductivity from doping a triplet quantum spin liquid in a flat band system
• The princess and the pea: on the outsized role of inter-layer ligands in copper-pyrazine antiferromagnets
• Spin-state smectics in spin crossover materials
• Rare collapse of fermionic quasiparticles upon coupling to local bosons
• Dynamic scaling near the Kasteleyn transition in spin ice: critical relaxation of monopoles and strings following a field quench