Quasiparticle breakdown in a quantum spin liquid

Nature
M B StoneD H Reich

Abstract

Much of modern condensed matter physics is understood in terms of elementary excitations, or quasiparticles--fundamental quanta of energy and momentum. Various strongly interacting atomic systems are successfully treated as a collection of quasiparticles with weak or no interactions. However, there are interesting limitations to this description: in some systems the very existence of quasiparticles cannot be taken for granted. Like unstable elementary particles, quasiparticles cannot survive beyond a threshold where certain decay channels become allowed by conservation laws; their spectrum terminates at this threshold. Such quasiparticle breakdown was first predicted for an exotic state of matter--super-fluid 4He at temperatures close to absolute zero, a quantum Bose liquid where zero-point atomic motion precludes crystallization. Here we show, using neutron scattering, that quasiparticle breakdown can also occur in a quantum magnet and, by implication, in other systems with Bose quasiparticles. We have measured spin excitations in a two-dimensional quantum magnet, piperazinium hexachlorodicuprate (PHCC), in which spin-1/2 copper ions form a non-magnetic quantum spin liquid, and find remarkable similarities with excitations in ...Continue Reading

References

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Citations

Aug 5, 2015·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Igor ZaliznyakCedomir Petrovic
May 13, 2017·Physical Review Letters·S WardCh Rüegg
Jun 8, 2018·Advanced Science·Jagath GunasekeraDeepak K Singh
Jul 22, 2015·Physical Review Letters·C StockC Petrovic
Nov 13, 2014·Journal of Physics. Condensed Matter : an Institute of Physics Journal·V N GlazkovA Zheludev
Jun 24, 2017·Inorganic Chemistry·Richard A MolePaul T Wood
Sep 11, 2021·Nature Communications·Seung-Hwan DoAndrew D Christianson

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