Comment on: Microscopic signatures of an imaginary charge density wave in a kagome metal

Abstract

Recently, Suetsugu $\text{at al.}$ reported microscopic signatures of an imaginary charge density wave (iCDW) and TRSB in CsV${}_3$Sb${}_5$ at $T^{\ast }\approx 120$ K, attributing nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) linewidths and asymmetric Zeeman-perturbed NQR (Zp-NQR) lineshapes to chiral loop currents in [arXiv:2605.05101; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-026-03339-8]. In this Comment, we demonstrate that these observations are not evidence of exotic physics but are instead fully explained by crystalline mosaicity and pre-transitional CDW fluctuations. Through exact diagonalization of the full nuclear-spin Hamiltonian, we show that the observed asymmetric lineshapes arise naturally from an angular mosaic spread in the Zp-NQR regime, completely reproducing the data without the need for internal magnetic fields. Furthermore, we reveal that the reported emergent local field ($h_{\text{loc}}$) is an artifact resulting from unjustified and unreported fitting constraints, and the use of an approximate perturbative model. Strikingly, we point out that this local-field model required for the proposed iCDW produces features that are absent in the data. Addressing the recent Reply by Suetsugu $\text{at al.}$ [arXiv:2608.24927v1], we show that these core issues remain unresolved: the linewidth follows a standard Curie-Weiss law with no phase transition at $T^{\ast }$, and their definition of mosaicity overlooks well-documented strain-mediated lattice distortions. Most critically, when the full Hamiltonian is solved exactly and the artificial fitting constraints are removed, the inferred loop-current signature vanishes ($h_{\text{loc}}\to 0$). We therefore conclude that the claim of an iCDW state in in Ref. [arXiv:2605.05101; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-026-03339-8] is unsupported by the data, arising instead from incomplete spectral simulations and inadequate theoretical modeling.

comment on arXiv:2605.05101; reply to arXiv:2608.24927v1