Quantum ferromagnetic transition in clean Dirac metals

The ferromagnetic quantum phase transition in clean metals with a negligible spin-orbit interaction is known to be first order due to a coupling of the magnetization to soft fermionic particle-hole excitations. A spin-orbit interaction gives these excitations a mass, suggesting the existence of a fe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEurophysics letters Vol. 127; no. 5; pp. 57003 - 57007
Main Authors Kirkpatrick, T. R., Belitz, D.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Les Ulis EDP Sciences, IOP Publishing and Società Italiana di Fisica 01.09.2019
IOP Publishing
Subjects
71.10.-w
71.70.Ej
73.43.Nq
Critical point
Excitation
Ferromagnetic materials
Particle spin
Phase transitions
Spin-orbit interactions
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Summary:The ferromagnetic quantum phase transition in clean metals with a negligible spin-orbit interaction is known to be first order due to a coupling of the magnetization to soft fermionic particle-hole excitations. A spin-orbit interaction gives these excitations a mass, suggesting the existence of a ferromagnetic quantum-critical point in metals with a strong spin-orbit interaction. We show that this expectation is not borne out in a large class of materials with a Dirac spectrum, since the chirality degree of freedom leads to new soft modes that again render the transition first order.
Bibliography:ark:/67375/80W-4SB5NRZ3-W
publisher-ID:epl19844
href:https://epljournal.edpsciences.org/0295-5075/127/i=5/a=57003/article
istex:842E1891EA95C8E3E8DFE64D77982CA43962D8EF
ISSN:0295-5075
1286-4854
1286-4854
DOI:10.1209/0295-5075/127/57003