Spectroscopic signatures of crystal momentum fractionalization
- Creators
- Essin, Andrew M.
- Hermele, Michael
Abstract
We consider gapped Z_2 spin liquids, where spinon quasiparticles may carry fractional quantum numbers of space-group symmetry. In particular, spinons can carry fractional crystal momentum. We show that such quantum number fractionalization has dramatic, spectroscopically accessible consequences, namely, enhanced periodicity of the two-spinon density of states in the Brillouin zone, which can be detected via inelastic neutron scattering. This effect is a sharp signature of certain topologically ordered spin liquids and other symmetry-enriched topological phases. Considering square lattice space-group and time-reversal symmetry, we show that exactly four distinct types of spectral periodicity are possible.
Additional Information
© 2014 American Physical Society. Received 30 January 2014; revised manuscript received 19 August 2014; published 5 September 2014. We thank T. Senthil for inspiring discussions and Dmitry Reznik for helpful comments. M.H. is grateful to Hao Song for a related collaboration. This work was supported by AFOSR/DARPA Grant No. FA8750-12-2-0308 (A.M.E.) and by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation (M.H. and A.M.E.). The Institute for Quantum Information and Matter (IQIM) is an NSF Physics Frontiers Center with support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.Attached Files
Published - PhysRevB.90.121102.pdf
Submitted - 1401.1846v4.pdf
Supplemental Material - specsigSuppInfo.pdf
Files
Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 50027
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20140925-103805367
- FA8750-12-2-0308
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)
- David and Lucile Packard Foundation
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- Created
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2014-09-25Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-10Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Institute for Quantum Information and Matter