Lucile Savary (MIT) — Michelson Postdoctoral Prize Lecturer
Date: Tue. January 24th, 2017, 11:00 am-12:00 pmLocation: Miller room
Quantum Spin Ice
Recent work has highlighted remarkable effects of classical thermal fluctuations in the dipolar spin ice compounds, such as “artificial magnetostatics.” In this talk, I will address the effects of terms which induce quantum dynamics in a range of models close to the classical spin ice point. Specifically, I will focus on Coulombic quantum spin liquid states, in which a highly entangled massive superposition of spin ice states is formed, allowing for dramatic quantum effects: emergent quantum electrodynamics and its associated emergent electric and magnetic monopoles. I will also discuss how random disorder alone may give rise to both a quantum spin liquid and a Griffiths Coulombic liquid–a Bose glass-like phase. I will review how these models describe a large class of magnetic compounds with the pyrochlore structure.