Riemann meets Goldstone: magnon scattering off quantum Hall skyrmion crystals probes interplay of symmetry breaking and topology

Abstract

We introduce a model to study magnon scattering in skyrmion crystals, sandwiched between ferromagnets which act as the source of magnons. Skyrmions are topological objects while skyrmion crystals break internal and translational symmetries, thus our setup allows us to study the interplay of topology and symmetry breaking. Starting from a basis of holomorphic theta functions, we construct an analytical ansatz for such a junction with finite spatially modulating topological charge density in the central region and vanishing in the leads. We then construct a suitably defined energy functional for the junction and derive the resulting equations of motion, which resemble a Bogoliubov-de Gennes-like equation. Using analytical techniques, field theory, heuristic models and microscopic recursive transfer-matrix numerics, we calculate the spectra and magnon transmission properties of the skyrmion crystal. We find that magnon transmission can be understood via a combination of low-energy Goldstone modes and effective emergent Landau levels at higher energies. The former manifests in discrete low-energy peaks in the transmission spectrum which reflect the nature of the Goldstone modes arising from symmetry breaking. The latter, which reflect the topology, lead to band-like transmission features, from the structure of which further details of the excitation spectrum of the skyrmion crystal can be inferred. Such characteristic transmission features are absent in competing phases of the quantum Hall phase diagram, and hence provide direct signatures of skyrmion crystal phases and their spectra. Our results directly apply to quantum Hall heterojunction experiments in monolayer graphene with the central region doped slightly away from unit filling, a $\nu =1:1\pm \delta \nu :1$ junction and are also relevant to junctions formed by metallic magnets or in junctions with artificial gauge fields.

20+6 pages, 9+2 figures, comments welcome

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