Local Quantum Phase Transition in YFe2Al^d10

Published

July 3, 2018

Author(s)

W. J. Gannon, L. S. Wu, I. A. Zaliznyak, W. H. Xu, A. M. Tsvelik, Yiming Qiu, Jose Rodriguez Rivera, M. C. Aronson

Abstract

A phase transition occurs when correlated regions of a new phase grow to span the system and the fluctuations within the correlated regions become long-lived. Here we present neutron scattering measurements showing that this conventional picture must be replaced by a new paradigm in YFe₂Al₁₀, a compound that forms naturally very close to a Τ=0 quantum phase transition. Fully quantum mechanical fluctuations of localized moments are found to diverge at low energies and temperatures, however the fluctuating moments are entirely without spatial correlations. Zero temperature order in YFe₂Al₁₀ is achieved by a new and entirely local type of quantum phase transition that may originate with the creation of the moments themselves. One Sentence Summary: Neutron scattering experiments on YFe₂Al₁₀ reveal a new type of continuous Τ=0 phase transition that is entirely dynamical, where the absence of spatial correlations reflects the emergence of localized magnetic moments in a correlated electron band.

Citation

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Volume

115

Issue

27

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

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Keywords

quantum phase transition, neutron scattering

Citation

Gannon, W. , Wu, L. , Zaliznyak, I. , Xu, W. , Tsvelik, A. , Qiu, Y. , Rodriguez Rivera, J. and Aronson, M. (2018), Local Quantum Phase Transition in YFe₂Al^d10, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=924294 (Accessed October 21, 2025)