Majorana-fermion origin of the planar thermal Hall effect in the Kitaev magnet $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$

Abstract

The field-induced quantum disordered state of layered honeycomb magnet $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$ is a prime candidate for Kitaev spin liquids hosting Majorana fermions and non-Abelian anyons. Recent observations of anomalous planar thermal Hall effect demonstrate a topological edge mode, but whether it originates from Majorana fermions or bosonic magnons remains controversial. Here we distinguish these origins from low-temperature measurements of high-resolution specific heat and thermal Hall conductivity with rotating in-plane fields. In the honeycomb bond direction, a distinct closure of the low-energy bulk gap is observed concomitantly with the sign reversal of the Hall effect. General discussions of topological bands show that this is the hallmark of an angle-rotation-induced topological transition of fermions, providing conclusive evidence for the Majorana-fermion origin of the thermal Hall effect in $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$.

arXiv comment21 pages, 7 figures

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Cited by in corpus (16)

• Kitaev Quantum Spin Liquids
• Two-step growth of high-quality single crystals of the Kitaev magnet $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$
• Magnetothermal transport in ultraclean single crystals of Kitaev magnet $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$
• Thermal Transport Properties of Magnons on the $\alpha$-T${}_3$ Lattice
• Field-Angle-Resolved Specific Heat in Na${}_2$Co${}_2$TeO${}_6$: Evidence against Kitaev Quantum Spin Liquid
• Lifting of gap nodes by disorder in ultranodal superconductor candidate FeSe1-xSx
• Digital Quantum Simulation of the Kitaev Quantum Spin Liquid
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• Robustness of Vacancy-Bound Non-Abelian Anyons in the Kitaev Model in a Magnetic Field
• Spin-phonon coupling and thermal Hall effect in the Kitaev model
• Vector pulse magnet
• Tuning the Chern number of Kitaev quantum spin liquid
• Anomalies in the thermal conductivity of honeycomb antiferromagnet MnPS${}_3$