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Harmonic phase in polar liquids and spin ice

Bramwell, ST; (2017) Harmonic phase in polar liquids and spin ice. Nature Communications , 8 , Article 2088. 10.1038/s41467-017-02102-1. Green open access

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Abstract

Many liquid or liquid-like states remain stable down to temperatures well below the interaction energy scale, where mean-field theory predicts an ordering transition. In magnetism, correlated states such as spin ice and the spin liquid have been described as Coulomb phases, governed by an emergent gauge principle. In the physical chemistry of polar liquids, systems that evade mean field order have, in contrast, been described by Onsager’s theory of the reaction field. Here we observe that in the low-temperature limit, Onsager’s theory may be cast as a prototypical theory of the Coulomb phase. However at finite temperature, it describes a distinct geometrical state, characterised by harmonic functions. This state, labelled here the ‘harmonic phase’, is shown to occur experimentally in spin ice, a dipolar lattice system. It is suggested to be relevant to more general dipolar liquids.

Type: Article
Title: Harmonic phase in polar liquids and spin ice
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-02102-1
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02102-1
Language: English
Additional information: © The Author(s) 2017. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Keywords: Magnetic properties and materials, Statistical physics
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Physics and Astronomy
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10040714
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