Temperature evolution of the phonon dynamics in the Kitaev spin liquid

Abstract

Here we present a study of the phonon dynamics in the honeycomb Kitaev spin model at finite temperatures. We show that the fractionalized spin excitations of the Kitaev spin liquid, the itinerant Majorana fermions and static $Z_2$ fluxes, have distinct effects on the phonon dynamics, which makes the phonon dynamics a promising tool for exploring the Kitaev spin liquid candidate materials. In particular, we will focus on the signature of the fractionalized excitations in the thermodynamic behaviour of the sound attenuation and the phonon Hall viscosity: The former describes the phonon decay into the fractionalized excitations, and the later is the leading order time reversal symmetry breaking effect on the acoustic phonon. We find that the angular dependence of the attenuation coefficient and its magnitude are modified by the thermal excitation of the $Z_2$ fluxes. The strength of this effect strongly depends on the relative magnitude of the sound velocity and the Fermi velocity characterizing the low-energy Majorana fermions. We also show that the Hall viscosity is strongly suppressed by the increase of the density of the $Z_2$ fluxes at finite temperatures. All these observations reflect the effects of the emergent disorder on the Majorana fermions introduced by the $Z_2$ fluxes. Our analysis is based on the complementary analytical calculations in the low-temperature zero-flux sector, and numerical calculations in the inhomogeneous flux sectors at intermediate and high temperatures with stratified Monte Carlo (strMC) method.

arXiv comment26 pages, 21 figures

References in corpus (48)

• Anyons in an exactly solved model and beyond
• Mott Insulators in the Strong Spin-Orbit Coupling Limit: From Heisenberg to a Quantum Compass and Kitaev Models
• Quantum Spin Liquids
• Quantum Spin Liquids
• Quantum Orders and Symmetric Spin Liquids
• Majorana quantization and half-integer thermal quantum Hall effect in a Kitaev spin liquid
• Proximate Kitaev Quantum Spin Liquid Behaviour in α-RuCl${}_3$
• Kitaev quantum spin liquid - concept and materialization
• Neutron tomography of magnetic Majorana fermions in a proximate quantum spin liquid
• A Field Guide to Spin Liquids
• Scattering Continuum and Possible Fractionalized Excitations in $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$
• Viscosity of Quantum Hall Fluids
• Excitations in the field-induced quantum spin liquid state of alpha-RuCl3
• Hunting Majorana Fermions in Kitaev Magnets
• Accelerate Monte Carlo Simulations with Restricted Boltzmann Machines
• Large field-induced gap of Kitaev-Heisenberg paramagnons in $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$
• Doping a spin-orbit Mott Insulator: Topological Superconductivity from the Kitaev-Heisenberg Model and possible application to (Na2/Li2)IrO3
• Berry Curvature and Phonon Hall Effect
• Raman Scattering Signatures of Kitaev Spin Liquids in A${}_2$ IrO${}_3$ Iridates
• Dynamics of Fractionalization in Quantum Spin Liquids
• Thermal Hall Effect Induced by Magnon-Phonon Interactions
• Quantization of the thermal Hall conductivity at small Hall angles
• Magnon bound states vs. anyonic Majorana excitations in the Kitaev honeycomb magnet $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$
• Approximately quantized thermal Hall effect of chiral liquids coupled to phonons
• Antiferromagnetic resonance and terahertz continuum in $\alpha -$RuCl${}_3$
• Resolving continua of fractional excitations by spinon echo in THz 2D coherent spectroscopy
• Enhanced thermal Hall effect in nearly ferroelectric insulators
• High-Field Quantum Disordered State in $\alpha$-RuCl3: Spin Flips, Bound States, and a Multi-Particle Continuum
• Resonant inelastic X-ray scattering response of the Kitaev honeycomb model
• Quantum spin liquid at finite temperature: proximate dynamics and persistent typicality
• Dissipationless Phonon Hall Viscosity
• The range of non-Kitaev terms and fractional particles in RuCl${}_3$
• Theory of Raman response in three-dimensional Kitaev spin liquids: application to $\beta -$ and $\gamma -$Li${}_2$IrO${}_3$ compounds
• Phonon dynamics in the Kitaev spin liquid
• Self-Learning Monte Carlo Method: Continuous-Time Algorithm
• Interacting non-Abelian anyons as Majorana fermions in the honeycomb lattice model
• Confinement-Deconfinement Transition as an Indication of Spin-Liquid-Type Behavior in Na${}_2$IrO${}_3$
• Phonon renormalization in the Kitaev quantum spin liquid
• Disorder upon disorder: localization effects in the Kitaev spin liquid
• Spinon Phonon Interaction and Ultrasonic Attenuation in Quantum Spin Liquids
• Resonant Raman scattering theory for Kitaev models and their Majorana fermion boundary modes
• Probing spinon nodal structures in three-dimensional Kitaev spin liquids
• Observing spin fractionalization in the Kitaev spin liquid via temperature evolution of indirect resonant inelastic x-ray scattering
• Acoustic Faraday effect in Tb${}_3$Ga${}_5$O${}_{12}$
• Further insights into the thermodynamics of the Kitaev honeycomb model
• Hall Viscosity and the Acoustic Faraday Effect
• Magnon-spinon dichotomy in the Kitaev hyperhoneycomb $\beta$-Li${}_2$IrO${}_3$
• Convolutional restricted Boltzmann machine aided Monte Carlo: An application to Ising and Kitaev models

Cited by in corpus (12)

• Kitaev Quantum Spin Liquids
• Thermal Hall Effect in the Kitaev-Heisenberg System with Spin-Phonon Coupling
• Footprints of the Kitaev spin liquid in the Fano lineshapes of the Raman active optical phonons
• Nearly-Resonant Crystalline-Phononic Coupling in Quantum Spin Liquid Candidate CsYbSe${}_2$
• Phonon Dynamics in the Generalized Kitaev Spin Liquid
• Magnetic-field Induced Topological Transitions and Thermal Conductivity in a Generalized Kitaev Model
• Phonon Dynamics in the Chiral Kitaev Spin Liquid
• Ultrafast spin dynamics in the proximate quantum spin liquid α-RuCl3
• Sound attenuation in the hyperhoneycomb Kitaev spin liquid
• Signatures of fractionalization in the optical phonons of hyperhoneycomb Kitaev magnet $\beta$-Li${}_2$IrO${}_3$
• Magnetostriction in the $J$-$K$-$\Gamma$ model: Application of the numerical linked cluster expansion
• The Role of the Third Dimension in Searching Majorana Fermions in $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$ via Phonons