title: Dynamically induced frustration as a route to a quantum spin ice state in Tb2Ti2O7 via virtual crystal field excitations and quantum many-body effects.
abstract: The Tb2Ti2O7 pyrochlore magnetic material is attracting much attention for its spin liquid state, failing to develop long-range order down to 50 mK despite a Curie-Weiss temperature thetaCW approximately -14 K. In this Letter we reinvestigate the theoretical description of this material by considering a quantum model of independent tetrahedra to describe its low-temperature properties. The naturally tuned proximity of this system near a Néel to spin ice phase boundary allows for a resurgence of quantum fluctuation effects that lead to an important renormalization of its effective low-energy spin Hamiltonian. As a result, Tb2Ti2O7 is argued to be a quantum spin ice. We put forward an experimental test of this proposal using neutron scattering on a single crystal.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada.
authors.forename: Hamid R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Molavian
authors.forename: Michel J P
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Gingras
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Canals