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Quantum magnets

Break it up

Nature Physics volume 11, pages 8–9 (2015)Cite this article

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Fractional magnetic excitations naturally emerge in one-dimensional spin chains. The search for fractionalization in higher dimensions has focused on frustrated systems but evidence now suggests that it can occur in simple two-dimensional antiferromagnets.

The quantum theory of condensed matter made its debut with the band theory of metals and insulators — introducing the possibility of defining perturbative approaches based on the free-electron picture, and granting access to an understanding of almost all forms of matter. In recent years, however, it has become increasingly apparent that many materials evade this description due to cooperative effects that give rise to exotic phenomena like fractional excitations1. Such fractionalization is usually associated with frustration in magnetic systems. But now, writing in Nature Physics, Bastien Dalla Piazza and co-workers2 provide evidence for fractional excitations in a square-lattice quantum antiferromagnet.

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Figure 1: Spinon propagation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Federico Becca and Sandro Sorella are at the Democritos National Simulation Center, Istituto Officina dei Materiali del CNR and SISSA-International School for Advanced Studies, Via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy,

    Federico Becca & Sandro Sorella

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  1. Federico Becca
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  2. Sandro Sorella
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Correspondence to Federico Becca or Sandro Sorella.

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Becca, F., Sorella, S. Break it up. Nature Phys 11, 8–9 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3213

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