Spinon-phonon interaction in algebraic spin liquids
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Serbyn-2013-Spinon-phonon interaction.pdf
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Author(s)
Serbyn, Maksym
Lee, Patrick A.
Date Issued
May 2013
Journal
Physical Review B
Citation
Serbyn, Maksym, and Patrick A. Lee. “Spinon-Phonon Interaction in Algebraic Spin Liquids.” Phys. Rev. B 87, no. 17 (May 2013). © 2013 American Physical Society
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Motivated by a search for experimental probes to access the physics of fractionalized excitations called spinons in spin liquids, we study the interaction of spinons with lattice vibrations. We consider the case of algebraic spin liquid, when spinons have fermionic statistics and a Dirac-like dispersion. We establish the general procedure for deriving spinon-phonon interactions, which is based on symmetry considerations. The procedure is illustrated for four different algebraic spin liquids: π-flux and staggered-flux phases on a square lattice, π-flux phase on a kagome lattice, and zero-flux phase on a honeycomb lattice. Although the low-energy description is similar for all these phases, different underlying symmetry groups lead to a distinct form of spinon-phonon interaction Hamiltonian. The explicit form of the spinon-phonon interaction is used to estimate the attenuation of ultrasound in an algebraic spin liquid. The prospects of the sound attenuation as a probe of spinons are discussed.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.87.174424
