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Physics Condensed Matter Strongly Correlated Electrons

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Wednesday 5 August

Strongly Correlated Electrons

Ghost-RISB for Correlated Electron-Phonon Systems: Application to the Hubbard-Holstein Model

We develop a generalization of the ghost-rotationally-invariant slave-boson (ghost-RISB) method that incorporates local phonon modes coupled to arbitrary on-site electronic degrees of freedom, enabling a nonperturbative treatment of electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions within an efficient variational framework. The method extends the ghost-orbital construction to capture dynamical self-energy effects and phonon-induced renormalizations beyond static slave-boson approaches. Benchmarking against dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) results for the Hubbard-Holstein model, we find excellent quantitative agreement for electron quasiparticle weights and phonon properties across a wide range of coupling strengths, and it captures accurately the competition between electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions. We show that the inclusion of the ghost orbitals is crucial to accurately describe the regime of low-frequency, strongly dynamical, phonons. The extended ghost-RISB achieves this accuracy at a fraction of the computational cost of DMFT, due to its self-consistency rooted in static observables instead of dynamical ones, enabling rapid exploration of correlated electron-phonon phase diagrams. We exploit this advantage to characterize the most demanding regime of strong coupling and adiabatic phonons. Our analysis shows a suppression of the superconducting order parameter, which is interpreted as a Franck-Condon-like reduction of the overlap between the phonon wavefunctions associated with empty and doubly-occupied sites in the bipolaronic regime.
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All authors Samuele Giuli, Ricardo J. Campos-Lopes, Emin Moghadas, Massimo Capone

Strongly Correlated Electrons

Lifting the degeneracy of quantum spin liquid phase by uniaxial pressure

We report muon spin relaxation/rotation ($\mu$SR) measurements of the candidate three-dimensional (3D) quantum spin liquid (QSL) PbCuTe$_2$O$_6$, hosting $S=1/2$ moments, under controlled in situ [110] uniaxial compression up to $\sigma_{[110]}=37.7$~MPa. A small directional lattice perturbation significantly modifies the local magnetic response, while above $\sigma_{\rm cr}\sim10.8$\,MPa the relaxation rates are strongly enhanced and the internal-field distribution is substantially broadened. These changes occur along with the local crystalline symmetry breaking. While, no evidence for conventional static long-range magnetic order is observed, the compression drives the system towards a structurally modified and strongly correlated state in which enhanced quasi-static correlations coexist with persistent slow spin dynamics. This work demonstrates a clean and symmetry-selective route to control frustrated exchange landscape and access hidden magnetic instabilities in a 3D QSL candidate opening up the possibilities to tune other correlated systems where intrinsic coupling between magnetic and lattice degrees of freedom are relevant.
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All authors Shams Sohel Islam, Zurab Guguchia, Orion Gerguri, Petr Král, Maxime Lamotte, Toni Shiroka, Jonas A. Krieger, Thomas J. Hicken, Tina Arh, Gediminas Simutis, Abanoub Hanna, Nazmul Islam, Bella Lake, Hubertus Luetkens, Hans Henning Klauss, Rajib Sarkar

Strongly Correlated Electrons · Cross-listed from quant-ph

Single-eigenstate test of eigenstate thermalization hypothesis via perturbed eigenstate quench

We propose and numerically validate an efficient single-eigenstate diagnostic for the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) based on a perturbed eigenstate quench protocol. By introducing a weak random perturbation to an energy eigenstate to break its stationarity, we characterize the time-averaged subsystem evolution speed as a function of the subsystem-to-total system size ratio. The diagnostic relies on a robust qualitative distinction: eigenstates satisfying ETH exhibit an S-shaped curve with a clear inflection point near half the system size, while ETH-violating eigenstates display a convex J-shaped profile. We benchmark the criterion across paradigmatic one-dimensional spin chains covering chaotic, integrable, many-body localized, and quantum many-body scar regimes, obtaining full agreement with established thermalization phenomenology. Our method circumvents the need for explicit thermal ensemble construction, providing a robust, experimentally feasible probe of eigenstate thermalization at the single-eigenstate level.
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Strongly Correlated Electrons

Wavepacket Approach for Spin Transport in Zigzag Spin Chain

We study the spin transport property of a spin nematic liquid in a frustrated zigzag spin chain in a magnetic field from the perspective of the time evolution of wavepackets by a time-dependent density-matrix renormalization group method. We use the periodic boundary condition to avoid an edge-induced magnetization structure in the open boundary condition. We find that at the saturation, a magnon-pair wavepacket of momentum k=pi stays localized, since the gapless dispersion due to the antiferro-quadrupole quasi-long-range order has a rather flat structure, indicating zero propagation velocity.
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Strongly Correlated Electrons · Cross-listed from hep-th

Critical and multicritical Kasner scaling in holographic phase transitions

We study how holographic phase transitions imprint their scaling laws on the local Kasner geometry inside Einstein-scalar black holes. At fixed double-trace coupling, we derive the near-critical scaling of the deviation of the first-epoch Kasner exponent from the Schwarzschild value: $p_t^{(1)}+\frac{1}{3} \propto O^2 \propto (T_c-T)^{1/r}$, where $O$ denotes the boundary condensate and $r$ labels ordinary criticality ($r=1$), tricriticality ($r=2$), and higher multicriticality ($r\geq3$). A super-exponential scalar potential generates a sequence of Kasner epochs separated by scalar-field bounces. We further find that any later epoch that can be tracked continuously across the transition inherits the same temperature exponent, while its coefficient depends on the epoch. Numerical solutions confirm these predictions for the ordinary and tricritical cases. Finally, we show analytically that the leading irrelevant exponent of the infrared fixed point governs the low-temperature Kasner scaling, and verify the resulting scaling numerically for the first Kasner exponent.
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Strongly Correlated Electrons

Zero-Clustering Geometry in Realistic Fractional Quantum Hall Wave Functions

The clustering pattern of zeros in the ground state of a fractional quantum Hall system is a defining feature of its topological properties. We analyze the geometrical fluctuations of the zeros around individual electrons and propose to use the displacement ratio of the zeros to visualize and measure the distance of a realistic state to a model wave function. The distribution of the zero displacement ratio behaves like an order parameter in the transition from a Laughlin phase to a topologically trivial one. The statistical comparison between quantum Hall states belonging to different Jain sequences leads to a composite fermion fluid description of the $\nu = 1/5$ ground state with long-range Coulomb interaction that agrees almost perfectly for as few as $3$-$5$ electrons, overcoming the long-standing difficulties of accommodating the competing liquid and crystal orders at short distances.
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All authors Xin Wan, Ziang Wang, Zi-Xiang Hu, Zhao Liu

Strongly Correlated Electrons

Quantized topological invariant of symmetry-projected Gibbs states

We study Gibbs states projected onto the symmetric sector of contractible one-form symmetries. In a three-dimensional cluster-model interpolation, this projection stabilizes symmetry-protected topological and projected-paramagnetic phases, both sharply distinct from thermal disorder. A flux-twisted membrane invariant distinguishes these three phases by the values $-1,+1,0$, respectively. These values are exact on the endpoint, self-dual, zero-temperature, and infinite-temperature lines; elsewhere their quantization requires positive spatial-sheet, winding-line, and interface tensions. Quantum Monte Carlo supports the quantization through tension diagnostics and direct finite-size estimates.
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Tuesday 4 August

Strongly Correlated Electrons · Cross-listed from hep-th

Tilts from 2-Groups

2-group global symmetries intertwine 0-form and 1-form symmetries in an interesting way. We analyze universal constraints on lines which are charged under the 1-form subgroup of a 2-group, and show that they generically break the 0-form symmetry explicitly. This gives rise to a family of line defects parameterized by the broken symmetry generators, whose existence is invariant under the renormalization group flow of the bulk-defect system. The symmetry breaking is enforced by a `family anomaly,' which is a topological obstruction to a symmetric defect. Our main tools are the Wess-Zumino consistency condition and a generalized anomaly inflow formalism for defects and boundaries. For nonabelian continuous 2-groups the family anomaly stems from a higher Berry connection on the moduli space of defects, and constrains response functions that probe the local action of the broken symmetry. In the continuous abelian case we apply differential cohomology to the 2-group background fields to uncover a subtle generalization of the Wess-Zumino condition, while in the discrete case we recast it in terms of the associativity of symmetry defects. We give numerous illustrative examples, computing when possible explicit forms of the tilt operator (which probes the linear response of the defect to the broken symmetry) and its higher analogs, which are crucial for matching the family anomaly. We also discuss universal features such as how symmetry violation by charged line defects is related to symmetry breaking hierarchies in the bulk, and highlight a number of subtle points including the distinction between simple and non-simple lines, and Postnikov class resolution.
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Strongly Correlated Electrons · Cross-listed from cond-mat.mes-hall

Valley polarization of moiré interlayer exciton complexes driven by many-body interactions

Localized interlayer excitons (IX) in moiré transition metal dichalcogenide heterostructures can both probe and participate in many-body states hosted by the moiré superlattice. When the IX density is small compared to the moiré lattice density, the formation of incompressible charge crystals at fractional electronic moiré fillings modifies exciton-charge scattering, leading to enhanced lifetimes in photoluminescence (PL) measurements. At high IX densities, the exciton dynamics are altered by the emergence of an excitonic Mott insulator and the formation of doubly-occupied sites (IXX). Here, we investigate the IX PL lifetime and valley polarization in an R-type $\mathrm{WSe_2}$/$\mathrm{WS_2}$ bilayer across a wide range of IX and charge densities. While previous studies reported a decrease of polarization in time-integrated measurements in charge-incompressible phases, our results show that this arises not from enhanced intervalley scattering, but from a dilution of the valley polarization by the dramatic enhancement of IX lifetimes. At high excitation densities, we probe the dynamics of the IXX and show that despite the nominal antiparallel valley configuration of the two constituent excitons, a strong, anomalous valley polarization develops as the IXX population decays. Our results shed light on the complex exciton and valley dynamics of IX and demonstrate that they are strongly modified by the rich many-body physics of moiré heterobilayers.
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All authors Adrian O. Paulus, Mikołaj J. Metelski, Alain Dijkstra, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Nathan P. Wilson, Jonathan J. Finley

Strongly Correlated Electrons · Cross-listed from quant-ph

Reconstructing non-Abelian braiding and fusion without anyon transport

Non-Abelian anyons offer a route to fault-tolerant and universal quantum computing, but experimental access to their defining braiding and fusion data remains limited by the resource overhead of implementing extended anyonic processes on quantum hardware. Here we introduce and experimentally realise a measurement-only protocol based on temporally ordered ribbon operations that reconstructs the non-Abelian braiding and fusion primitives of the quantum double model $D(S_3)$ without physical anyon transport. We implement a reduced two-qutrit version of the protocol on Quantinuum's H2 trapped-ion processors, realising ancilla-assisted ribbon operations and anyonic charge projections in a qubit encoding. We reconstruct the squared braiding phases and fusion amplitudes using an adapted Hadamard test and post-selected measurements, respectively. The associated braiding and fusion transformations reproduce their ideal actions with average normalised output-state fidelities of $\overline{\mathcal{F}}_{R}=0.9988$ and $\overline{\mathcal{F}}_{F}=0.9987$. Combining these primitives produces a non-Clifford braid and a non-stabilizer resource state, supporting measurement-only anyonic encodings as building blocks for larger topologically encoded quantum processors.
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All authors Lucy Byles, Matthew D. Horner, Benjamin T. H. Varcoe, Jiannis K. Pachos

Strongly Correlated Electrons

Entanglement entropy of fermions in a strange metal

The subsystem-size dependence of ground-state entanglement entropy and its crossover to thermal entropy as a function of temperature are well understood for one-dimensional (1D) gapless systems described by conformal field theory (CFT), and for free fermions with a Fermi surface in any dimension. However, little is known about the entanglement entropy for gapless fermionic systems without quasi-particles, such as a strange metal. Here we study the entanglement entropy of fermions in a solvable large-$N$ 1D lattice model akin to the Yukawa-Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (Yukawa SYK) model. In this model, two Fermi points are coupled to scalar bosons via spatially random Yukawa interactions, providing a solvable model of a strange metal when the bosons become critical at a quantum critical point. We exactly compute the second Rényi entropy of fermions in a spatial subregion in this model. Our results unravel crucial role of intra-subregion entanglement between fermionic and bosonic degrees of freedom along with the inter-subregion entanglement in understanding the ground states of such strongly coupled fermion-boson systems. We show that the crossover from thermal entropy to entanglement entropy, is captured by a single scaling ansatz, that collapses the second Rényi entropy of fermions for different subregion sizes and temperatures into a single universal curve. We further show that the universal scaling curve for the critical strange metal is well described by the standard CFT formula, albeit with an effective central charge substantially larger than the non-interacting value.
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All authors Santanu Singh, Surajit Bera, Chenyuan Li, Subir Sachdev, Sumilan Banerjee

Strongly Correlated Electrons

Magnetic-Field-Driven Dimensional Reduction in a Quantum Antiferromagnet

Low dimensionality enhances quantum fluctuations, triggering novel states of quantum matter to emerge. In real materials, low dimensionality usually arises from spatially strongly anisotropic couplings. Here, we demonstrate a different mechanism: in two-dimensional systems with coupled alternating ferromagnetic (FM) and antiferromagnetic (AFM) spin-$1/2$ chains, an applied magnetic field may drive a dimensional reduction. Under magnetic field, the FM chains polarize and stiffen, suppressing the propagation of transverse AFM fluctuations from one chain to another, and effectively induce one-dimensional behavior at low energies. For a model describing botallackite, Cu$_2$(OH)$_3$Br, quantum Monte Carlo dynamics show that beyond a critical magnetic field, the low-energy spectrum reduces to that of a one-dimensional AFM Heisenberg spin-$1/2$ chain with field-dependent incommensurate two-spinon fluctuations, providing clear signatures for inelastic neutron scattering.
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All authors Subhankar Khatua, Marcin Raczkowski, Jeroen van den Brink, Fakher F. Assaad

Strongly Correlated Electrons

Breakdown of Monotonic Impurity Entropy Flow in $\mathscr{PT}$-Symmetric Multichannel Kondo Systems

We study a $\mathscr{PT}$-symmetric non-Hermitian multichannel Kondo model consisting of a pair of spin-$\frac12$ impurities coupled to $n$ conduction-electron channels through complex-conjugate Kondo couplings. The impurity renormalization-group (RG) flow is characterized by the Kondo scale $T_K$ and a dimensionless non-Hermiticity parameter $\alpha$. As $\alpha$ increases, the exact Bethe Ansatz solution exhibits four impurity phases: overscreened Kondo, zero mode, Yu–Shiba–Rusinov (YSR), and local moment. The Kondo, zero-mode, and local-moment phases are $\mathscr{PT}$-unbroken, whereas the YSR phase spontaneously breaks $\mathscr{PT}$ symmetry. Using a generalized thermodynamic Bethe Ansatz, we determine the impurity free energy and Affleck–Ludwig $g$-function throughout the $\mathscr{PT}$-unbroken phases. In the Kondo phase, the defect RG flow connects the ultraviolet and infrared conformal fixed points, with the impurity entropy flowing from $2\ln2$ to $2\ln\left[2\cos\left(\frac{\pi}{n+2}\right)\right]$, in agreement with defect conformal field theory. In the zero-mode phase, zero-energy impurity strings reorganize the spectrum into multiple excitation towers, while in the local-moment phase, the RG flow becomes cyclic, returning to the unscreened local-moment fixed point. We conjecture that RG irreversibility, and hence a generalized Affleck–Ludwig $g$-theorem, survives throughout the Kondo phase. Our exact solution nevertheless shows that a real spectrum and defect entropies consistent with defect CFT do not guarantee RG irreversibility: the impurity entropy is non-monotonic in both the zero-mode and local-moment phases.
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Strongly Correlated Electrons · Cross-listed from cond-mat.supr-con

Thermodynamic phase transition, pairing symmetry and Fermi surface topology in Ruddlesden-Popper nickelate films

Ruddlesden-Popper (RP) nickelates provide an uncharted territory to explore high-transition-temperature (high-$T_C$) superconductivity and superconducting mechanism. Here, we investigate the electronic structure of a new type of high-$T_C$ superconducting RP nickelate heterostructure $\mathrm{La_2PrNi_2O_7/NdAlO_3}$ by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. A superconducting state is observed without a pseudogap state, enabling a direct measurement of the superconducting order parameter and a microscopic extraction of the electronic specific heat. The observed superconducting gap opens at $T_C$ with prominent coherence peaks, illustrating the emergence of nonzero order parameter upon entering the superconducting state. An electronic specific heat jump appears at $T_C$, further demonstrating a thermodynamic phase transition. The magnitude of the superconducting order parameter is quantified by the observed superconducting coherence peaks, and a nodeless behavior is unambiguously established in the absence of pseudogap. The underlying Fermi surface consists of $\alpha$, $\beta$ and $\gamma$ pockets, exhibiting a multi-orbital nature. Strain dependent measurements further reveal the $\gamma$ pocket in all superconducting and non-superconducting films with different epitaxial strain. Our results establish the missing thermodynamic evidence for superconducting phase transition in nickelates. They also provide direct evidence for the symmetry of the superconducting order parameter and illustrate the relationship between Fermi surface topology and the emergence of superconductivity in RP nickelate films.
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All authors Yu Miao, Zhiwei Wang, Hongxu Sun, Jianchang Shen, Runqing Luan, Zhipeng Ou, Xinru Yong, Zhenyu Wang, Tao Wu, Haoyu Hu, Junfeng He, Xianhui Chen

Strongly Correlated Electrons

Accelerated quantum Monte Carlo simulations of the attractive Hubbard model on the kagome lattice

The recent discovery of several families of kagome materials and experimental realization of optical kagome lattices have stimulated growing numerical studies of interaction-driven correlated states on the kagome lattice. Among the available numerical approaches, determinant quantum Monte Carlo (DQMC) is a powerful method for investigating such strongly correlated states. However, the accessible system sizes of existing DQMC simulations remain limited, preventing reliable finite-size scaling analyses. Here we develop a general acceleration scheme based on fast Fourier transform (FFT) for propagator multiplications on composite lattices and combine it with the delay-update algorithm, enabling simulations on system sizes twice as large as those of previous DQMC studies, allowing reliable finite-size scaling analyses of the attractive kagome-lattice Hubbard model. Our large-scale simulations reveal the interaction-driven zero-temperature superfluid quantum criticality at the Dirac filling and provide reliable estimates of the associated critical exponents. Besides, we find no evidence that the previously proposed triangle-rule charge-density-wave order survives in the thermodynamic limit, suggesting that it is likely a finite-size effect. Moreover, for system sizes accessible in current two-dimensional optical lattice experiments, the combined FFT and delay-update scheme exhibits an effective computational cost scaling as $N^{2.49}$, substantially below the $\mathcal{O}(N^3)$ computational cost of conventional DQMC simulations.
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Strongly Correlated Electrons · Cross-listed from cond-mat.mes-hall

Surface-Selective Probe of Spin-Triplet Superconductivity in Rhombohedral Graphene

Superconductivity in rhombohedral graphene has been observed across many layer numbers, with mounting evidence pointing toward spin-triplet pairing, yet complementary probes of the superconducting spin structure remain needed. Here we use one-sided WS$_2$ proximity in rhombohedral pentalayer graphene (R5G) as a surface-selective spin-orbit probe. The induced Ising spin-orbit coupling is strongest for carriers localized near the WS$_2$ interface, allowing the displacement field to tune the overlap between superconducting carriers and the spin-orbit perturbation. We observe a strongly asymmetric superconducting landscape: two robust pockets, SC1 and SC2, survive only on mutually opposite signs of displacement field, while a third pocket, SC3, is substantially weaker. Gate-tracking features, quantum oscillations, and self-consistent band-structure calculations identify the layer polarization and Fermi-surface character of the relevant carriers. The robust superconducting states are absent or strongly weakened when the active high-DOS carriers are polarized toward the WS$_2$ interface. Since Ising spin-orbit coupling is compatible with time-reversed spin-singlet pairing but competes with same-spin intervalley triplet pairing by canting or pinning the parent spin texture, this surface-selective suppression provides additional evidence for spin-triplet superconductivity involving both hole-like and electron-like carriers. Our results establish one-sided TMD proximity as a displacement-field-tunable probe of superconducting spin structure in rhombohedral graphene.
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All authors Kilian Krötzsch, Zekang Zhou, Kryštof Kolář, Yonggen Li, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Moty Heiblum, Cyprian Lewandowski, Mitali Banerjee

Strongly Correlated Electrons

Local magnetic order in vacancy-disrupted spin ice Ho2TiO5

We investigate how local magnetic correlations evolve when the classical pyrochlore spin-ice Ho2Ti2O7 is transformed into the partially disordered stuffed compound Ho2TiO5. Neutron scattering measurements were analyzed using real-space magnetic pair distribution function, reciprocal-space reverse Monte Carlo, and half-polarized neutron powder diffraction methods to connect the average crystal structure with local magnetic correlations. Both compounds retain long-range $Fd-3m symmetry, but in Ho2TiO5 this average structure distorts locally through Ho-O, Ti-O and O-O bond-length disorder associated with partial Ho/Ti occupancy. Despite this disorder, half-polarized neutron powder diffraction shows that the Ho moments retain local <111> rangle Ising anisotropy and form spin-in/spin-out configurations on the tetrahedral network. In Ho2Ti2O7, real- and reciprocal-space analyses reveal a nearly ideal two-in/two-out spin-ice state at 0.3K, with 95% of tetrahedra satisfying the ice rule, followed by progressive thermal disordering on warming. In Ho2TiO5, most tetrahedra are magnetically incomplete because some tetrahedral vertices are occupied by nonmagnetic Ti rather than Ho; nevertheless, the dominant incomplete configurations are 2-in/1-out and 1-in/2-out, which are locally compatible with the ice rule if the missing Ho spin is restored. The single-ion <111> Ising anisotropy is therefore retained throughout, while the collective ice ordering is strongly disrupted: Ho2TiO5 is a vacancy-disrupted spin ice in which a local ice-rule tendency persists on a topologically incomplete magnetic network.
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All authors Raju Baral, Haidong Zhou, Qiang Zhang, Benjamin A. Frandsen, Stuart Calder

Strongly Correlated Electrons

Antisymmetric Dynamical Spin Correlations: Spin-Space-Group Constraints and Frequency-Moment Sum Rules

Polarized inelastic neutron scattering probes the handedness of magnetic excitations through the spin-component-antisymmetric part of the dynamical spin-structure-factor tensor. We derive its symmetry constraints under unitary and antiunitary residual operations of magnetic space groups and spin-space groups. These constraints determine the allowed tensor components, their parity under momentum reversal, and symmetry-enforced nodes. We then introduce the corresponding antisymmetric commutator spectral function and derive exact zero-temperature sum rules for its frequency moments. The zeroth moment is fixed by the uniform magnetization. For Heisenberg or XXZ exchange Hamiltonians, the first moment of the $xy$ component is fixed by a momentum-weighted static vector chirality. For compensated collinear antiferromagnets, the antisymmetric dynamical structure factor is forbidden when inversion or a translation relates the opposite-spin sublattices. In rotation-related altermagnets, however, an $xy$ component that is even under momentum reversal is allowed at generic wave vectors. Finite antisymmetric spectral weight can therefore coexist with vanishing zeroth and first moments of the commutator spectral function. In a planar helix, by contrast, a residual antiunitary spin-space-group symmetry makes the allowed $xy$ component odd under momentum reversal. Its first moment is generally nonzero and is fixed by a momentum-weighted static vector chirality through the first-moment sum rule. Linear spin-wave calculations for representative altermagnetic and helical models explicitly realize these symmetry and sum-rule constraints.
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Strongly Correlated Electrons

Cavity control of quantum phase transitions in a two-dimensional Kondo lattice

Cavity quantum electrodynamics offers a route to control quantum phases by using vacuum fluctuations of confined electromagnetic fields. In particular, planar cavities based on polar van der Waals materials can generate strongly confined modes and are promising for controlling two-dimensional correlated materials. Recently, moiré materials have become central platforms for studying two-dimensional heavy-fermion systems and their quantum phase transitions. Kondo lattices provide a prototypical model for studying quantum phase boundaries, driven by competition between Kondo screening and the ordering of local magnetic moments. We show that a cavity-induced interaction can shift the quantum phase transitions between a heavy-fermion phase and an antiferromagnetic phase in a two-dimensional Kondo lattice through a momentum-dependent self-energy of the conduction bands. For the longitudinal projected field motivated by h-BN hyperbolic phonon polaritons, the self-energy favors Kondo hybridization and expands the heavy-fermion region. Transverse and circular in-plane model structures give distinct effects, with the transverse case relatively favoring the magnetically ordered phase and the circular case lying between the longitudinal and transverse cases. These results indicate that electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations can effectively modify the control parameters of strongly correlated two-dimensional Kondo materials.
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Strongly Correlated Electrons · Cross-listed from hep-th

Impurities Near the Light Cone

The lightlike Wilson line cusp underlies the Sudakov double logarithm and is a central ingredient in gauge-theory factorization. We ask what replaces this behavior for general conformal line defects in Lorentzian signature. We argue that, when the defects admit local endpoint operators, the cusp anomalous dimension has a finite large-boost limit fixed by the scaling dimensions of the corresponding defect-creation operators. We further analyze the distinct analytic continuations of the cusp, elucidate their physical interpretations, and derive a positivity condition on the Lorentzian cusp anomalous dimension. We test these predictions in several perturbative examples, including pinning-field defects and spin impurities, and discuss their possible implications for gauge theories.
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Strongly Correlated Electrons

Microscopic Origin of Random Singlet Behavior in B-site Disordered Spin-1/2 Perovskite BaCu_1/3Nb_2/3O_3 Revealed by EXAFS and Thermodynamics

We report a combined structural and thermodynamic study of the ABO$_3$-type disordered perovskite BaCu$_{1/3}$Nb$_{2/3}$O$_3$ (BCNO), whose B site is jointly occupied by Cu and Nb in the $1:2$ ratio. Using synchrotron powder x-ray diffraction (XRD) and x-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) spectroscopy, we investigate the microscopic nature of Cu$^{2+}$/Nb$^{5+}$ disorder on the pseudo-cubic B-sublattice and its relation to the emergent random-singlet (RS) behavior evidenced at low temperatures. While XRD reveals no long-range Cu/Nb ordering and average site occupancy consistent with stoichiometry, XAFS reveals a peculiar local chemical order characterized by preferential heteroatomic Cu$:$Nb correlations. This local arrangement strongly suppresses direct Cu$:$Cu linkages, despite the Cu concentration being close to the percolation threshold of a cubic lattice. The resulting exchange network explains the absence of spin-glass freezing or long-range magnetic order in the presence of substantial antiferromagnetic interactions, as indicated by a Curie-Weiss temperature $\Theta_{CW}\approx -50$ K. Instead, the magnetic susceptibility $\chi(T)$ and specific heat $c_p(T)$ exhibit power-law behavior and characteristic single-parameter $T/H$ scaling over broad temperature and magnetic-field ranges, consistent with random-singlet phenomenology. Notably, at very low temperatures, the specific heat behavior transitions from $T^{1-\gamma}$ ($\gamma \approx 0.6$ from the $T/H$ scaling) in zero-field to a T-linear dependence under high field, indicating a crossover to a distinct low-energy regime whose microscopic origin remains to be established.
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All authors Sagar Mahapatra, Francesco De Angelis, Martin Etter, Edmund Welter, M. P. Saravanan, Rajeev Rawat, Carlo Meneghini, Surjeet Singh

Strongly Correlated Electrons

Emergence and Detection of Surface altermagnetism in KV$_2$Se$_2$O

We demonstrate the recent concept of emergent surface altermagnetism through its unique signatures in \KVSO. We show that for bulk antiferromagnetically ordered \KVSO, the (001) surface exhibits $d$-wave altermagnetism. Our results fully explain the recent seemingly contradicgting experimental evidence, independently showing both an antiferromagnetically ordered bulk from neutron diffraction, and $d$-wave spin splitting from photoemission spectroscopy. To fully verify this conecept, we predict, as a key experimental signature, a large nonlinear Edelstein response, which is localized at the surface, and follows the $d$-wave altermagnetic symmetry. These results are not only relevant for the metallic and room-temperature magnet \KVSO, but also for several other Lieb lattice systems. Our work expands the pool of techniques that can be used to detect altermagnetism emerging at the surfaces of antiferromagnets.
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All authors Rodrigo Jaeschke-Ubiergo, Xanthe H. Verbeek, Colin Lange, Sergio Rodriguez, Atasi Chakraborty, Alexander Mook, Jairo Sinov

Strongly Correlated Electrons

Manipulation of localized excitons in CrPS$_4$ by temperature and magnetic field

Layered van der Waals magnetic semiconductors provide a versatile platform for exploring excitonic phenomena intertwined with spin and lattice degrees of freedom, enabling excitons to act as sensitive probes of magnetic order. CrPS$_4$ is a layered antiferromagnetic semiconductor that hosts rich excitonic features whose microscopic origin and connection to magnetic ordering remain incompletely understood. Here, we investigate the electronic and excitonic properties of bulk CrPS$_4$ using a combination of many-body perturbation theory, dynamical mean-field theory, and photoluminescence-based experiments. Our calculations establish CrPS$_4$ as a direct-gap semiconductor with a bandgap of 2.48~eV in the antiferromagnetic phase. Several sub-bandgap excitonic transitions are predicted by theory, comprising multiple spin-allowed excitons and an additional spin-flip excitation, predominantly localized on the Cr$^{3+}$ ions. Temperature- and magnetic-field-dependent optical measurements reveal thermally driven exciton redistribution among localized states and identify characteristic energy shifts that provide clear optical signatures of magnetic phase transitions in CrPS$_4$. These results provide new insights into the excitonic transitions of antiferromagnets and suggest potential routes for all-optical sensing and light-driven control of their magnetic order.
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All authors Dipankar Jana, Swagata Acharya, Amit Pawbake, Dmitrii Litvinov, Aljoscha Soll, Zdenek Sofer, Clement Faugeras, Dimitar Pashov, Mark van Schilfgaarde, Kostya S. Novoselov, Marek Potemski, Maciej Koperski

Strongly Correlated Electrons · Cross-listed from cond-mat.mtrl-sci

The New High-entropy Compound RhMnFeCoGe4 with Cubic Non-centrosymmetric B20 Structure

A novel high-entropy compound, RhMnFeCoGe$_4$, with a cubic non-centrosymmetric B20 struc- ture, has been synthesized under conditions of high pressure and temperature. The electrical transport and magnetic properties of the obtained compound at both ambient and elevated pres- sures have been investigated. In addition, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra were obtained at 4.2 K and ab initio calculations were performed. The new material exhibits ferromag- netic behavior with a critical temperature of $T_C$ = 146 K and a spontaneous moment of 2.5 $\mu_B$ per formula unit. The magnetization data obtained at the critical region yielded the critical temperature and exponents, which were found to be $T_C$ = 146(1) K, $\beta$ = 0.337(1), $\gamma$ = 1.121(1), and $\delta$ = 4.326(1). The magnetic moments of Mn and Co were determined from NMR spectra to be 2.2 $\mu_B$ and 0.5 $\mu_B$, respectively. Ab initio calculations yielded reasonable values for the lattice parameter and the magnetic moments of all constituents. The density of states and band structure are determined for both paramagnetic and ferromagnetic states. Lattice compression results in the increase in the $T_C$.
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All authors V. A. Sidorov, V. N. Krasnorussky, A. V. Bokov, Z. N. Volkova, A. P. Gerashchenko, N. M. Chtchelkatchev, M. V. Magnitskaya, D. A. Salamatin, A. V. Semeno, V. V. Brazhkin, A. V. Tsvyashchenko

Strongly Correlated Electrons · Cross-listed from cond-mat.mes-hall

Vector-field control and emergent basal-plane anisotropy of magnetic textures in noncentrosymmetric (Fe$_{0.63}$Ni$_{0.3}$Pd$_{0.07}$)$_3$P

(Fe$_{0.63}$Ni$_{0.3}$Pd$_{0.07}$)$_3$P is a room-temperature magnet with $S_4$ symmetry that hosts a rich variety of topological spin textures. Here, we report a combined resonant small-angle x-ray scattering and ptychography study of (Fe$_{0.63}$Ni$_{0.3}$Pd$_{0.07}$)$_3$P in vector magnetic fields over a broad temperature range. We demonstrate deterministic vector-field control of magnetic stripe domains, where in-plane fields continuously rotate their orientation via a transition from a chiral stripe to an achiral fan configuration. Furthermore, at 50 K and below, the stripe orientation becomes metastably pinned and retains its field-trained direction. While the magnitude of the wavevector is nearly isotropic within the basal plane at room temperature, a pronounced temperature evolution of anisotropic interactions emerges upon cooling. In particular, non-trivial anisotropy axes develop at 20-50 K reflecting the combined effects of magnetocrystalline anisotropy, anisotropic exchange, and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI), whose effective orientation is found to rotate with temperature. These results establish (Fe$_{0.63}$Ni$_{0.3}$Pd$_{0.07}$)$_3$P as a model system for vector-field control of chiral spin textures and reveal a previously unrecognized temperature-driven evolution of the effective DMI landscape in a noncentrosymmetric magnet.
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All authors Victor Ukleev, Oleg I. Utesov, Lorenzo Ubilla, Chen Luo, Radu-Marius Abrudan, Peter Wild, Holger Kropf, Moritz Winter, Sebastian Schneider, Alexander Tahn, Bernd Rellinghaus, Tim A. Butcher, Simone Finizio, Sebastian Wintz, Markus Weigand, Max T. Birch, Yoshinori Tokura, Yasujiro Taguchi, Kosuke Karube, Florin Radu

Strongly Correlated Electrons

Magnetoresistance in Magnetic Weyl semimetal Mn$_{3}$ZnC

The magnetoresistance (MR) in magnetic materials reveal an intriguing spin-dependent electron scattering, highlighting the role of spin polarization on the electronic transport properties. This becomes even more interesting for the topological magnetic materials where a finite Berry curvature leads to an intrinsic scattering channel also. In this report, we investigate MR of Mn$_{3}$ZnC, an antiperovskite magnetic nodal line semimetal. Mn$_{3}$ZnC shows a ferromagnetic (FM) transition at $\sim$ 420 K, followed by an ferrimagnetic (FIM) transition at $\sim$ 195 K. We focus on the interpretation of MR data and highlight the relation between MR and its magnetization. The signature of magnetization induced MR shows correlation at low magnetic fields and displays distinct behaviors in the FIM and FM states. Similar to the isothermal magnetization M(H) curve of FM and FIM state, the MR curves exhibit a sharp increase, followed by a linear behavior at higher fields. As the magnetic field varies, the cusp-like anomaly becomes more pronounced, and vanishes at the magnetic phase transition, which then reappears as the temperature increases. The sign change in the MR curves in the FIM state is attributed to a drastic change in the carrier mobility. Interestingly, this system shows a positive MR in FM state at very low field, which is quite unusual.
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Strongly Correlated Electrons · Cross-listed from cond-mat.mes-hall

Helicity in monoaxial chiral magnets

The equilibrium state of a monoaxial chiral magnet surrounded by a non-magnetic medium (such as air or vacuum) is a helical texture characterized by a single, well-defined wave vector. No metastable states have ever been observed in such systems. Recently, however, it was demonstrated that when a chiral magnet is in close contact with two uniaxial ferromagnets, a large number of metastable helical states emerge in addition to the equilibrium state [Phys. Rev. B 109, 214424]. These helical states are distinguished by their wave number (helicity). In the present work, we elucidate the topological origin of the stabilization of these states –a mechanism we term dynamical topological protection– and investigate their static and dynamic properties. We find that, as a consequence of this dynamical topological protection, the winding number of the helical states remains constant under the application of sufficiently weak magnetic fields and polarized electric currents. Furthermore, when a polarized current is applied to a metastable helical state, a static configuration is reached. This state retains the original winding number, but its winding number density becomes non-homogeneously distributed, concentrating near the interface with one of the ferromagnets. The dynamic response to sufficiently large magnetic fields and currents provides mechanisms to switch between different helical states. Since the magnetic properties depend on helicity, these metastable helical states are highly promising for applications in spintronics and magnonics.
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Strongly Correlated Electrons

Fluctuations of topological charges in two-dimensional classical Heisenberg model through high-temperature and low-temperature expansions

It is well known that KT transition in 2d XY model is driven by the binding and unbinding of topological defects, which can be characterized by the fluctuation of topological charges inside a region. We extend the idea into the 2d Heisenberg model and calculate the fluctuation through high-temperature and low-temperature expansion respectively. It is found that the fluctuation of topological charges is proportional to the area of the region at high temperatures while obeys the perimeter law at low temperatures.
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Strongly Correlated Electrons

Contrasting anisotropic electron-phonon-spin coupling in Fe$_{3}$GeTe$_{2}$ and Fe$_{5}$GeTe$_{2}$: A helicity-resolved Raman study

Two-dimensional van der Waals ferromagnets Fe$_3$GeTe$ _2$ (F3GT) and Fe$_5$GeTe$_2$ (F5GT) exhibit pronounced magneto-optical responses, which open promising platforms for investigating the interplay among lattice, electronic, and magnetic degrees of freedom. Here, we present a comparative study of optical resonance-induced anisotropic electron-phonon coupling and its association with magnetic ordering in these systems using wavelength- and temperature-dependent helicity-resolved Raman spectroscopy. By resolving the doubly degenerate E modes under left- and right-circularly polarized excitations, we demonstrate that the temperature evolution of the chiral mode splitting ($\Delta f$) does not track the magnetization behavior, indicating that the helicity-dependent Raman response arises not solely from time-reversal symmetry breaking due to magnetic order, but also from spin-orbit-coupled electronic interactions. Notably, in F3GT, the out-of-plane magnetization indirectly governs the in-plane anisotropic electron-phonon coupling under optical resonance, whereas F5GT exhibits static anisotropic interactions. The Fano asymmetry parameter $1/q$ reveals mode- and temperature-dependent coupling strengths between phonons and the electronic continuum, with pronounced angular anisotropy in F3GT but isotropic behavior in F5GT— a consequence of its multiple Fe sites and enhanced interlayer hybridization in the latter. Our results demonstrate the role of crystal structure and magnetic anisotropy in shaping the anisotropically coupled electron-phonon-spin dynamics in these layered metallic ferromagnets, and highlight Fe$_n$GeTe$_2$ as a versatile platform for microscopic insight into chiral light-matter interactions in layered metallic ferromagnets.
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All authors Smrutiranjan Mekap, Jyoti Saini, Andrzej Ptok, Pawan Kumar Srivastava, Changgu Lee, Subhasis Ghosh, Anushree Roy

Strongly Correlated Electrons

Exotic superconductivity in the doped Kitaev quantum spin liquid

We investigate superconductivity in a doped Kitaev quantum spin liquid by applying the many-variable variational Monte Carlo method to the hole-doped $t$-$J$-type Kitaev model. Using a projected pair-product wave function that can exactly represent the Kitaev quantum spin liquid, we examine the stability of superconducting phases on isotropic two-dimensional clusters. For the ferromagnetic Kitaev interaction, robust triplet $p$-wave superconductivity coexists with ferromagnetism in the low-to-intermediate doping regime but is suppressed as the system approaches the fully polarized ferromagnetic phase. For the antiferromagnetic Kitaev interaction, superconductivity exhibits a change in the dominant pairing symmetry from spin-dependent triplet $p$-wave at low doping to singlet $d+id$ at intermediate doping. By varying the strength of the ferromagnetic Kitaev interaction at fixed doping, we show that the triplet superconductivity increases together with the ferromagnetic moment and becomes strongest slightly below full polarization. Our results provide a theoretical basis for experimental searches for unconventional superconductivity, such as triplet superconductivity coexisting with ferromagnetism, in carrier-doped Kitaev candidate materials.
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