Condensed Matter Theory

Abstract:

The insulating magnetic pyrochlore ${\mathrm{Ce}}_2{\mathrm{Zr}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_7$ has gained attention as a quantum spin-ice candidate with dipole-octupole character that arises from the crystal-electric-field ground-state doublet for the ${\mathrm{Ce}}^{3+}$ Kramers ion. This dipole-octupole character permits both spin-ice phases based on magnetic dipoles and those based on more-exotic octupoles. This work reports low-temperature neutron diffraction measurements on single-crystal ${\mathrm{Ce}}_2{\mathrm{Zr}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_7$ with $Q$ coverage both at low $Q$ , where the magnetic form factor for dipoles is near maximal, and at high $Q$ , covering the region where the magnetic form factor for ${\mathrm{Ce}}^{3+}$ octupoles is near maximal. This study was motivated by recent powder neutron diffraction studies of other Ce-based dipole-octupole pyrochlores, ${\mathrm{Ce}}_2{\mathrm{Sn}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_7$ and ${\mathrm{Ce}}_2{\mathrm{Hf}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_7$ , which each showed temperature-dependent diffuse diffraction at high $Q$ , interpreted as arising from octupolar correlations. Our measurements use an optimized single-crystal diffuse scattering instrument that allows us to screen against strong Bragg scattering from ${\mathrm{Ce}}_2{\mathrm{Zr}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_7$ . The temperature-difference neutron diffraction reveals a low- $Q$ peak consistent with dipolar spin-ice correlations reported in previous work, and an alternation between positive and negative net intensity at higher $Q$ . These features are consistent with our numerical-linked-cluster calculations using pseudospin interaction parameters previously reported for ${\mathrm{Ce}}_2{\mathrm{Zr}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_7$ , ${\mathrm{Ce}}_2{\mathrm{Sn}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_7$ , and ${\mathrm{Ce}}_2{\mathrm{Hf}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_7$ . Importantly, neither the measured data nor any of the NLC calculations show evidence for increased scattering at high $Q$ resulting from octupolar correlations. We conclude that at the lowest attainable temperature for our measurements ( $T=0.05\mathrm{K}$ ), scattering from octupolar correlations in ${\mathrm{Ce}}_2{\mathrm{Zr}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_7$ is not present in the neutron diffraction signal on the level of our observation threshold of around 0.1% of the low- $Q$ dipole scattering. We compare these results to those obtained earlier on powder ${\mathrm{Ce}}_2{\mathrm{Sn}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_7$ and ${\mathrm{Ce}}_2{\mathrm{Hf}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_7$ , and to low-energy inelastic neutron scattering from single-crystal ${\mathrm{Ce}}_2{\mathrm{Zr}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_7$ .

Abstract:

The band-projected density operators in a Landau level obey the Girvin-MacDonald-Platzman (GMP) algebra, and a large amount of effort in the study of fractional Chern insulators has been directed toward approximating this algebra in a Chern band. In this Letter, we prove that the GMP algebra, up to form factors, is the only closed algebra that projected density operators can satisfy in two and three dimensions, highlighting the central place it occupies in the study of Chern bands in general. A number of interesting corollaries follow.