Anisotropy induces non-Fermi-liquid behavior and nematic magnetic order in three-dimensional Luttinger semimetals

We illuminate the intriguing role played by spatial anisotropy in three-dimensional Luttinger semimetals featuring quadratic band touching and long-range Coulomb interactions. We observe the anisotropy to be subject to an exceptionally slow renormalization group (RG) evolution so that it can be cons...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review. B 2017-02, Vol.95 (7), Article 075149
Main Authors: Boettcher, Igor, Herbut, Igor F
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anisotropy
Couplings
Light
Magnetic moments
Metalloids
Phase transitions
Quantum phenomena
Spin ice
Tensors
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We illuminate the intriguing role played by spatial anisotropy in three-dimensional Luttinger semimetals featuring quadratic band touching and long-range Coulomb interactions. We observe the anisotropy to be subject to an exceptionally slow renormalization group (RG) evolution so that it can be considered approximately constant when computing the impact of quantum fluctuations on the remaining couplings of the system. Using perturbative RG, we then study the competition of all local short-range interactions that are generated from the long-range interactions for fixed anisotropy. Two main effects come to light for sufficiently strong anisotropy. First, the three-dimensional system features an Abrikosov non-Fermi-liquid ground state. Second, there appear qualitatively new fixed points, which describe quantum phase transitions into phases with nemagnetic orders-higher-rank tensor orders that break time-reversal symmetry, and thus have both nematic and magnetic character. In real materials, these phases may be realized through sufficiently strong microscopic short-range interactions. On the pyrochlore lattice, the anisotropy-induced fixed points determine the onset of all-in-all-out or spin ice ordering of local magnetic moments of the electrons.
ISSN:2469-9950
2469-9969
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.95.075149