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Local Quantum Phase Transition in YFe2Al^d10

Published

Author(s)

W. J. Gannon, L. S. Wu, I. A. Zaliznyak, W. H. Xu, A. M. Tsvelik, Yiming Qiu, Jose Rodriguez Rivera, M. C. Aronson

Abstract

A phase transition occurs when correlated regions of a new phase grow to span the system and the fluctuations within the correlated regions become long-lived. Here we present neutron scattering measurements showing that this conventional picture must be replaced by a new paradigm in YFe2Al10, a compound that forms naturally very close to a Τ=0 quantum phase transition. Fully quantum mechanical fluctuations of localized moments are found to diverge at low energies and temperatures, however the fluctuating moments are entirely without spatial correlations. Zero temperature order in YFe2Al10 is achieved by a new and entirely local type of quantum phase transition that may originate with the creation of the moments themselves. One Sentence Summary: Neutron scattering experiments on YFe2Al10 reveal a new type of continuous Τ=0 phase transition that is entirely dynamical, where the absence of spatial correlations reflects the emergence of localized magnetic moments in a correlated electron band.
Citation
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume
115
Issue
27

Keywords

quantum phase transition, neutron scattering

Citation

Gannon, W. , Wu, L. , Zaliznyak, I. , Xu, W. , Tsvelik, A. , Qiu, Y. , Rodriguez Rivera, J. and Aronson, M. (2018), Local Quantum Phase Transition in YFe<sub>2</sub>Al^d10, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=924294 (Accessed October 31, 2024)

Issues

If you have any questions about this publication or are having problems accessing it, please contact reflib@nist.gov.

Created July 2, 2018, Updated October 12, 2021