Interactions between the microscopic constituents of a solid---a many-body system--- can lead to novel phases and exotic physical phenomena like fractionalization, topological order, quantum spin liquids, emergent gauge field, etc.. The concept of frustration provides a ground for such exotic phenomena. Frustration can prevent a many-body system from establishing long-range order down to the lowest temperatures due to competing interactions. Instead, competing interactions may result in disordered and liquid-like phases of matter that provide the vacuum for fractional excitations. The absence of any order parameter in strongly frustrated systems---due to not breaking any symmetry spontaneously--- immediately raises the question about possible experimental probes of spin-liquids and their fractional excitations. Dynamic probes, like inelastic neutron scattering or Raman scattering, provide an experimental method to detect signatures of fractionalised quasiparticles. The energy and momentum transferred in a scattering event is split between the fractional quasiparticles. On the theory side, computing such dynamical signatures beyond one spatial dimension is generally a difficult task. In this thesis, numerical methods like density matrix renormalisation group and matrix product states are used to study strongly frustrated magnets and their dynamics in a non-perturbative way.
This thesis covers two physical models in the context of frustration and emergent gauge fields. Firstly, the Kitaev model of spin-1/2 degrees of freedom subject to strongly anisotropic spin exchange. The Kitaev model features quantum spin liquid ground states with fractionalization of spins into Majorana fermions and Z_2-fluxes---the visons of an emergent Z_2 gauge theory. The main questions addressed here concern the stability of the quantum spin liquid phase upon adding perturbations relevant in magnetic compounds such as Heisenberg or the symmetric-offdiagonal Gamma exchange. Applying a magnetic field drives the Kitaev model into a topologically ordered phase. The excitations and dynamical signatures within the spin liquid, the topologically ordered phase, and within ordered phases are studied. Secondly, a classical minimal model of the proton configuration in water ice is studied. The ice rules, a local constraint describing the low energy manifold, result in emergent Maxwell's equation. Upon applying an external electric field along certain axis, a polarization plateau occurs in which the remaining degrees of freedom can be described by dimers on two-dimensional lattices.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:32252 |
| Date | 27 November 2018 |
| Creators | Gohlke, Matthias |
| Contributors | Moessner, Roderich, Pollmann, Frank, Vojta, Matthias, Technische Universität Dresden, Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | German |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion, doc-type:doctoralThesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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