Large and exact quantum degeneracy in a skyrmion magnet

B. Douçot, D. L. Kovrizhin, and R. Moessner
Phys. Rev. B 93, 094426 – Published 21 March 2016

Abstract

We identify a large family of ground states of a topological CPN1 skyrmion magnet whose classical degeneracy persists to all orders in a semiclassical expansion. This goes along with an exceptional robustness of the concomitant ground-state configurations, which are not at all dressed by quantum fluctuations. We trace these twin observations back to a common root: this class of topological ground states saturates a Bogomolny inequality. A similar phenomenology occurs in high-energy physics for some field theories exhibiting supersymmetry. We propose quantum Hall ferromagnets, where these skyrmions configurations arise naturally as ground states away from integer filling, as the best available laboratory realisations.

  • Received 19 January 2016
  • Revised 26 February 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.93.094426

©2016 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

B. Douçot1, D. L. Kovrizhin2,3, and R. Moessner4

  • 1LPTHE, CNRS and Université Pierre and Marie Curie, Sorbonne Universités, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France
  • 2T.C.M. Group, Cavendish Laboratory, J. J. Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, United Kingdom
  • 3RRC Kurchatov Institute, 1 Kurchatov Square, Moscow 123182, Russia
  • 4Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme, 01187 Dresden, Germany

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Issue

Vol. 93, Iss. 9 — 1 March 2016

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