In two previous papers we studied the problem of electronic properties in a system with long-ranged helimagnetic order caused by itinerant electrons. A standard many-fermion formalism was used. The calculations were quite tedious because different spin projections were coupled in the action, and because of the inhomogeneous nature of a system with long-ranged helimagnetic order. Here we introduce a canonical transformation that diagonalizes the action in spin space, and maps the problem onto a homogeneous fermion problem. This transformation to quasiparticle degrees of freedom greatly simplifies the calculations. We use the quasiparticle action to calculate single-particle properties, in particular the single-particle relaxation rate. We first reproduce our previous results for clean systems in a simpler fashion, and then study the much more complicated problem of three-dimensional itinerant helimagnets in the presence of an elastic relaxation rate 1/tau due to nonmagnetic quenched disorder. Our most important result involves the temperature dependence of the single-particle relaxation rate in the ballistic limit, tau^2 Tε_F > 1, for which we find a linear temperature dependence. We show how this result is related to a similar result found in nonmagnetic two-dimensional disordered metals.
Comment on "Theory of helimagnons in itinerant quantum systems" by D.Belitz, T.K.Kirpatrick and A.Rosch and "Cubic magnets with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction at low temperatures" by S.V.Maleyev
We apply a recent quasiparticle model for the electronic properties of metallic helimagnets to calculate the transport properties of three-dimensional systems in the helically ordered phase. We focus on the ballistic regime tau^2 T epsilon_F >> 1 at weak disorder (large elastic mean-free time tau) or intermediate temperature. In this regime, we find a leading temperature dependence of the electrical conductivity proportional to T. This is much stronger than either the Fermi-liquid contribution (T^2) or the contribution from helimagnon scattering in the clean limit (T^{5/2}). It is reminiscent …
The nature and effects of the Goldstone mode in the ordered phase of helical or chiral itinerant magnets such as MnSi are investigated theoretically. It is shown that the Goldstone mode, or helimagnon, is a propagating mode with a highly anisotropic dispersion relation, in analogy to the Goldstone mode in chiral liquid crystals. Starting from a microscopic theory, a comprehensive effective theory is developed that allows for an explicit description of the helically ordered phase, including the helimagnons, for both classical and quantum helimagnets. The directly observable dynamical spin susce…
We study the magnetic excitations of itinerant helimagnets by applying time-resolved optical spectroscopy to Fe0.8Co0.2Si. Optically excited oscillations of the magnetization in the helical state are found to disperse to lower frequency as the applied magnetic field is increased; the fingerprint of collective modes unique to helimagnets, known as helimagnons. The use of time-resolved spectroscopy allows us to address the fundamental magnetic relaxation processes by directly measuring the Gilbert damping, revealing the versatility of spin dynamics in chiral magnets. (*These authors contributed …
A recent theory for the ordered phase of helical or chiral magnets such as MnSi is used to calculate observable consequences of the helical Goldstone modes or helimagnons. In systems with no quenched disorder, the helimagnon contributions to the specific heat coefficient is shown to have a linear temperature dependence, while the quasi-particle inelastic scattering rate is anisotropic in momentum space and depends on the electronic dispersion relation. For cubic lattices the generic temperature dependence is given by a non-Fermi-liquid T^(3/2) behavior. The contribution to the temperature depe…
The temperature dependence of the manganese magnetic moment and the spin-lattice relaxation rate measured by the muon spin relaxation technique in the magnetically ordered phase of the chiral intermetallic cubic MnSi system are both explained in terms of helimagnon excitations of a localized spin model. The two free parameters characterizing the helimagnon dispersion relation are determined. A combined analysis of the two data sets cannot be achieved using the self-consistent renormalization theory of spin fluctuations which assumes the magnetism of MnSi to arise uniquely from electronic bands…
We calculate the magnetic and quasiparticle excitation spectra of an itinerant $J_1-J_2$ model for iron pnictides. In addition to an acoustic spin-wave branch, the magnetic spectrum has a second, optical branch, resulting from the coupled four-sublattice magnetic structure. The spin-wave velocity has also a planar directional anisotropy, due to the collinear/striped antiferromagnetism. Within the magnetically ordered phase, the quasiparticle spectrum is composed of two Dirac cones, resulting from the folding of the magnetic Brillouin zone. We discuss the relevance of our findings to the unders…
Ultrafast time-resolved photoinduced reflectivity is measured for the itinerant antiferromagnet UNiGa$_{5}$ ($T_{N} \approx$85 K) from room temperature to 10 K. The relaxation time $τ$ shows a sharp increase at $T_{N}$ consistent with the opening of a spin gap. In addition, the temperature dependence of $τ$ below $T_{N}$ is consistent with the opening of a spin gap leading to a quasiparticle recombination bottleneck as revealed by the Rothwarf-Taylor model. This contrasts with canonical heavy fermions such as CeCoIn$_{5}$ where the recombination bottleneck arises from the hybridization gap.
A brief account of the zero temperature magnetic response of a system of strongly correlated electrons in strong magnetic field is given in terms of its quasiparticle properties. The scenario is based on the paramagnetic phase of the half-filled Hubbard model, and the calculations are carried out with the dynamical mean field theory (DMFT) together with the numerical renormalization group (NRG). As well known, in a certain parameter regime one finds a magnetic susceptibility which increases with the field strength. Here, we analyze this metamagnetic response based on Fermi liquid parameters, w…
CeRhIn$_{5}$ is an itinerant magnet where the Ce$^{3+}$ spins order in a simple helical phase. We investigate the spin excitations and observe sharp spin-waves parameterized by a nearest neighbor exchange $J_{RKKY}$=0.88 $\pm$ 0.05 meV. At higher energies, the spin fluctuations are heavily damped where single quasiparticle excitations are replaced by a momentum and energy broadened continuum constrained by kinematics of energy and momentum conservation. The delicate energy balance between localized and itinerant characters results in the breakdown of the single quasiparticle picture in CeRhIn$…
It is a long-standing important issue in heavy fermion physics whether $f$-electrons are itinerant or localized when the magnetic order occurs. Here we report the {\it in situ} scanning tunneling microscopy observation of the electronic structure in epitaxial thin films of CeRhIn$_5$, a prototypical heavy fermion compound with antiferromagnetic ground state. The conductance spectra above the Néel temperature $T_N$ clearly resolve the energy gap due to the hybridization between local 4$f$ electrons and conduction bands as well as the crystal electric field excitations. These structures persist …
A theory of Kondo lattices or a $1/d$ expansion theory, with $d$ spatial dimensionality, is applied to studying itinerant-electron ferromagnetism. Two relevant multi-band models are examined: a band-edge model where the chemical potential is at one of band-edges, the top or bottom of bands, and a flat-band model where one of bands is almost flat or dispersionless and the chemical potential is at the flat band. In both the models, a novel ferromagnetic exchange interaction arises from the virtual exchange of pair excitations of quasiparticles; it has two novel properties such as its strength is…
A brief survey of the author's works on the quantum theory of magnetism. Theoretical foundation and applications of the generalized spin-fermion (sp-d) exchange lattice model to various magnetic systems, e.g., rare-earth metals and compounds, and magnetic and diluted magnetic semiconductors are discussed briefly. The main emphasis is put on the dynamic behavior of two interacting subsystems, the localized spins and spin density of itinerant carriers. A nonperturbative many-body approach was used to describe the quasiparticle dynamics. The approach permits to investigate and clarify the role of…
Detailed analysis of the magnetic properties of the Hubbard model within dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) is presented. Using a RPA-like decoupling of two-particle propagators we derive a universal form for susceptibilities, which captures essential aspects of localized and itinerant pictures. This expression is shown to be quantitatively valid whenever long-range coherence of particle-hole excitations can be neglected, as is the case in large parts of the phase diagram where antiferromag- netism is dominant. The applicability of an interpretation in terms of the two archetypical pictures of…
The two-dimensional model of itinerant electrons coupled to an anti-ferromagnetic order parameter is considered. In the mean field solution the Fermi surface undergoes reconstruction, and breaks into disconnected ``pockets''. We have studied the effect of the thermal fluctuations of the order parameter on the spectral density in such system. These fluctuations lead to a finite width of the spectral line scaling linearly with temperature. Due to the thermal fluctuations the quasi-particle spectral weight is transfered into a magnetic Brillouin zone. This can be interpreted as restoration of ``a…
We investigate the real-time spin response of the $S=1$ Kitaev model upon stimuli of a pulsed magnetic field in one of the edges using the exact diagonalization method. It is found that the pulsed magnetic field has no effect on the appearance of the spin moments in the quantum spin liquid region, but induces the spin oscillations in the other edge region with a small magnetic field. This is understood by the existence of the itinerant quasiparticles, which carry the spin excitations without the spin polarization in the quantum spin liquid state. This suggests that the spin fractionalizations …
Superconductivity mediated by spin fluctuations in weak and nearly ferromagnetic metals is studied close to the zero-temperature magnetic transition. We solve analytically the Eliashberg equations for p-wave pairing and obtain the normal state quasiparticle self-energy and the superconducting transition temperature $T_c$ as a function of the distance to the quantum critical point. We show that the reduction of quasiparticle coherence and life-time due to scattering by quasistatic spin fluctuations is the dominant pair-breaking process, which leads to a rapid suppression of $T_c$ to a nonzero v…
Recent STM experiments and theoretical considerations have highlighted the role of interaction-driven orbital selectivity in FeSe, and its role in generating the extremely anisotropic superconducting gap structure in this material. We study the magnetic excitation spectrum resulting from the coherent quasiparticles within the same renormalized random phase approximation approach used to explain the STM experiments, and show that it agrees well with the low-energy momentum and energy dependent response measured by inelastic neutron scattering experiments. We find a correlation-induced suppressi…
We report angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy measurements of the quantum critical metal Sr3Ru2O7 revealing itinerant Ru 4d-states confined over large parts of the Brillouin zone to an energy range of < 6 meV, nearly three orders of magnitude lower than the bare band width. We show that this energy scale agrees quantitatively with a characteristic thermodynamic energy scale associated with quantum criticality and illustrate how it arises from the hybridization of light and strongly renormalized, heavy quasiparticle bands. For the largest Fermi surface sheet we find a marked k-dependence …
We show that the metamagnetic transition in Sr$_4$Ru$_3$O$_{10}$ bifurcates into two transitions as the field is rotated away from the conducting planes. This two-step process comprises partial or total alignment of moments in ferromagnetic bands followed by an itinerant metamagnetic transition whose critical field increases with rotation. Evidence for itinerant metamagnetism is provided by the Shubnikov-de Hass effect which shows a non-trivial evolution of the geometry of the Fermi surface and an enhancement of the quasiparticles effective-mass across the transition. The metamagnetic response…
We report microwave surface impedance measurements made on a single crystal of PrOs_4Sb_12 across the frequency range 0.5 to 21 GHz. The penetration depth data provide clear thermodynamic evidence for superconductivity arising in two bands coupled by Josephson pair-tunneling, indicating two order parameters with the same symmetry. Detailed conductivity spectra obtained using high-resolution bolometry confirm this picture and extend it, revealing the itinerant nature of the Pr f electrons through the observation of quasiparticles with heavily renormalized mass.
The ground state properties of the one-dimensional Kondo lattice with an f^2 configuration at each site are studied by the density matrix renormalization group method. At half-filling, competition between the Kondo exchange J and the antiferromagnetic intra f-shell exchange I leads to reduction of energy gaps for spin, quasi-particle and charge excitations. The attractive force among conduction electrons is induced by the competition and the bound state is formed. As J/I increases the f^2 singlet gives way to the Kondo singlet as the dominant local correlation. The remarkable change of the qua…
The quantum critical behavior of disordered itinerant ferromagnets is determined exactly by solving a recently developed effective field theory. It is shown that there are logarithmic corrections to a previous calculation of the critical behavior, and that the exact critical behavior coincides with that found earlier for a phase transition of undetermined nature in disordered interacting electron systems. This confirms a previous suggestion that the unspecified transition should be identified with the ferromagnetic transition. The behavior of the conductivity, the tunneling density of states, …
Motivated by recent experiments in the Kitaev honeycomb lattice, Kondo insulators, and the "Luttinger's theorem-violating" Fermi liquid phase of the underdoped cuprates, we extend the theoretical machinery of Landau-Fermi liquid theory to a system of itinerant, interacting Majorana-like particles. Building upon a previously introduced model of "nearly self-conjugate" fermionic polarons, a Landau-Majorana kinetic equation is introduced to describe the collective modes and Fermi surface instabilities in a fluid of particles whose fermionic degrees of freedom obey the Majorana reality condition. …
The temperature dependence of the optical conductivity spectrum of an itinerant ferromagnetic material, ZrZn$_2$, was obtained and the dynamical effective mass and the scattering rate were derived. A renormalized Drude peak with a heavy effective mass developed at low temperatures. The effective mass rapidly increased below $\hbarω$ = 10 meV and at 10 K it was observed to be 3 times heavier than that at 300 K. The scattering rate also rapidly decreased below 10 meV at 10 K. These results indicate the creation of heavy quasiparticles at low temperatures due to spin fluctuations.
We discuss recent specific heat data in high magnetic fields on URu2Si2 and 4% Rh-doped URu2Si2 as well as previously published de Haas-van Alphen data at lower magnetic fields in pure URu2Si2; both of which are consistent with quasiparticle bands formed from a hybridization between 5f-electron Gamma5 doublets and regular conduction electrons. The system exhibits itinerant electron metamagnetism that gives rise to a putative quantum critical point at \~ 34 -37 T (depending on the % of Rh) that is subsequently unstable to field-induced phases
We present an exact solution for an itinerant hole added into the oxygen orbitals of a CuO$_{3}$-like ferromagnetic chain. Using the Green's function method, the quantum polarons obtained for the Heisenberg SU(2) interaction between localized Cu spins are compared with the polarons in the Ising chain. We find that magnons with large energy are favorable towards quasiparticle existence, even in the case of relatively modest electron-magnon coupling. We observe two quasiparticle states with dispersion $\sim 2t$ each, which emerge from the incoherent continuum when the exchange coupling $J$ incre…
In order to account for competition and interplay of localized and itinerant magnetic behaviour in correlated many body systems with complex spectra the various types of spin-fermion models have been considered in the context of the Irreducible Green's Functions (IGF) approach. Examples are generalized d-f model and Kondo-Heisenberg model. The calculations of the quasiparticle excitation spectra with damping for these models has been performed in the framework of the equation- of-motion method for two-time temperature Green's Functions within a non-perturbative approach. A unified scheme for t…
Quantum criticality in systems of local moments interacting with itinerant electrons has become an important and diverse field of research. Here we review recent results which concern (a) quantum phase transitions in single-impurity Kondo and Anderson models and (b) quantum phase transitions in heavy-fermion lattice models which involve critical quasiparticles. For (a) the focus will be on impurity models with a pseudogapped host density of states and their applications, e.g., in graphene and other Dirac materials, while (b) is devoted to strong-coupling behavior near antiferromagnetic quantum…
In solids containing elements with f orbitals, the interaction between f-electron spins and those of itinerant electrons leads to the development of low-energy fermionic excitations with a heavy effective mass. These excitations are fundamental to the appearance of unconventional superconductivity and non-Fermi-liquid behaviour observed in actinide- and lanthanide-based compounds. Here we use spectroscopic mapping with the scanning tunnelling microscope to detect the emergence of heavy excitations with lowering of temperature in a prototypical family of cerium-based heavy-fermion compounds. We…
We report on a study of the temperature and Zeeman-coupling-strength dependence of the one-particle Green's function of a two-dimensional (2D) electron gas at Landau level filling factor $ν=1$ where the ground state is a strong ferromagnet. Our work places emphasis on the role played by the itinerancy of the electrons, which carry the spin magnetization and on analogies between this system and conventional itinerant electron ferromagnets. We discuss the application to this system of the self-consistent Hartree-Fock approximation, which is analogous to the band theory description of metallic fe…
Within condensed-matter systems, strong electronic interactions often lead to exotic quantum phases. A recent manifestation of this is the unexpected observation of magnetic quantum oscillations and metallic thermal transport, both properties of systems with Fermi surfaces of itinerant quasiparticles, in the Kondo insulators SmB6 and YbB$_{12}$. To understand these phenomena, it is informative to study their evolution as the energy gap of the Kondo-Insulator state is closed by a large magnetic field. We show here that both the quantum-oscillation frequency and the cyclotron mass display a stro…
Quantum spin liquid involves fractionalized quasipariticles such as spinons and visons. They are expressed as itinerant Majorana fermions and $Z_2$ fluxes in the Kitaev model with bond-dependent exchange interactions on a honeycomb spin lattice. The observation has recently attracted attention for a candidate material $α$-RuCl$_3$, showing spin liquid behaviour induced by a magnetic field. Since the observable spin excitation is inherently composed of the two quasiparticles, which further admix each other by setting in the magnetic field as well as non-Kitaev interactions, their individual ide…
Our current understanding of strongly correlated electron systems is based on a homogeneous framework. Here we take a step going beyond this paradigm by incorporating inhomogeneity from the beginning. Specifying to systems near the Mott metal-insulator transition, we propose a real space picture of itinerant electrons functioning in the fluctuating geometries bounded by interfaces between metallic and insulating regions. In 2+1-dimensions, the interfaces are closed bosonic strings, and we have a system of strings coupled to itinerant electrons. When the interface tension vanishes, the geometri…
The hidden order (HO) in URu2Si2 has been determined as a high rank multipole formed by itinerant 5f-electrons with distinct orbital structure imposed by the crystalline electric field. Because this can lead to a considerable number of different multipoles it is of great importance to use microscopic techniques that are sensitive to their subtle physical differences. Here we investigate whether quasiparticle interference (QPI) method can distinguish between the two most frequently proposed HO parameter models: the even rank-4 hexadecapole and the odd-rank-5 dotriacontapole model. We obtain the…
We address the emergent quantum critical phenomena for (pseudo)spin-3/2 birefringent fermions, featuring two effective Fermi velocities, when they reside close to itinerant Mott transitions realized through spontaneous symmetry breaking and triggered by strong local or Hubbardlike repulsive interactions. Irrespective of the nature of the mass orderings that produce fully gapped quasiparticle spectra in the ordered phase, which otherwise can be grouped into three classes, the system always possesses a \emph{unique} terminal velocity near the corresponding quantum critical point. The associated …
We use the two fluid model to determine the conditions under which the nuclear spin-lattice lattice relaxation rate, $T_1$, of candidate heavy quantum critical superconductors can exhibit scaling behavior and find that it can occur if and only if their "hidden" quantum critical spin fluctuations give rise to a temperature-independent intrinsic heavy electron spin-lattice relaxation rate. The resulting scaling of $T_1$ with the strength of the heavy electron component and the coherence temperature, $T^*$, provides a simple test for their presence at pressures at which the superconducting transi…
