# Correlated Quantum Tunneling of Monopoles in Spin Ice

Tomasello, Bruno, Castelnovo, Claudio, Moessner, Roderich, Quintanilla, Jorge (2019) Correlated Quantum Tunneling of Monopoles in Spin Ice. Physical Review Letters, 123 . ISSN 0031-9007. E-ISSN 1079-7114. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.067204) (KAR id:75469)

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## Abstract

The spin ice materials Ho$$_2$$Ti$$_2$$O$$_7$$ and Dy$$_2$$Ti$$_2$$O$$_7$$ are by now perhaps the best-studied classical frustrated magnets. A crucial step towards the understanding of their low temperature behaviour -- both regarding their unusual dynamical properties and the possibility of observing their quantum coherent time evolution -- is a quantitative understanding of the spin-flip processes which underpin the hopping of magnetic monopoles. We attack this problem in the framework of a quantum treatment of a single-ion subject to the crystal, exchange and dipolar fields from neighbouring ions. By studying the fundamental quantum mechanical mechanisms, we discover a bimodal distribution of hopping rates which depends on the local spin configuration, in broad agreement with rates extracted from experiment. Applying the same analysis to Pr$$_2$$Sn$$_2$$O$$_7$$ and Pr$$_2$$Zr$$_2$$O$$_7$$, we find an even more pronounced separation of timescales signalling the likelihood of coherent many-body dynamics.

Item Type: Article 10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.067204 Physics of Quantum Materials, classical transport, frustrated magnestism, classical spin models, magnetic monopoles Q Science > QC Physics > QC173.45 Condensed MatterQ Science > QC Physics > QC176 Solid state physics Divisions > Division of Natural Sciences > Physics and Astronomy Jorge Quintanilla Tizon 19 Jul 2019 13:58 UTC 18 Feb 2022 04:13 UTC https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/75469 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1156-5408 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8572-730X