Gallery of soft modes: Theory and experiment at a ferromagnetic quantum phase transition
Spectral divergences have long been important in physics, from the 19th century UV catastrophe to IR divergences in modern quantum field theory. In all these, ``feedback'' mechanisms quell the divergences. But what if multiple IR divergences -- soft photons, phonons, and electronuclear magnons -- conspire to produce finite decoherence at a quantum phase transition? The authors develop here the theory for these cancelling divergences and experimentally observe the resulting mode softening in a quantum Ising magnet, with implications from condensed matter to quantum gravity.
Authors
- Alexandra A. Geim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5294-4941)
- Matthew Libersky (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4140-360X)
- T. F. Rosenbaum (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-6152-666X)
- R. D. McKenzie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5265-7635)
- D. M. Silevitch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6347-3513)
- P. C. E. Stamp
Institutions
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- Iowa State University (US)
- Harvard University Press (US)
- Ames National Laboratory (US)
- Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (CA)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical review. B./Physical review. B
- Published
- 2024-10-11
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.110.134420
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Quantum and electron transport phenomena
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.35
Funders
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Basic Energy Sciences