title: Are Multiphase Competition and Order by Disorder the Keys to Understanding Yb(2)Ti(2)O(7)?
abstract: If magnetic frustration is most commonly known for undermining long-range order, as famously illustrated by spin liquids, the ability of matter to develop new collective mechanisms in order to fight frustration is perhaps no less fascinating, providing an avenue for the exploration and discovery of unconventional behaviors. Here, we study a realistic minimal model where a number of such mechanisms converge, which, incidentally, pertain to the perplexing quantum spin ice candidate Yb(2)Ti(2)O(7). Specifically, we explain how thermal and quantum fluctuations, optimized by order-by-disorder selection, conspire to expand the stability region of a degenerate continuous U(1) manifold against the classical splayed ferromagnetic ground state that is displayed by the sister compound Yb(2)Ti(2)O(7). The resulting competition gives rise to multiple phase transitions, in striking similitude with recent experiments on Yb(2)Ti(2)O(7) [Lhotel et al., Phys. Rev. B 89, 224419 (2014)]. By combining a gamut of numerical techniques, we obtain compelling evidence that such multiphase competition is a natural engine for the substantial sample-to-sample variability observed in Yb(2)Ti(2)O(7) and is the missing key to ultimately understand the intrinsic properties of this material. As a corollary, our work offers a pertinent illustration of the influence of chemical pressure in rare-earth pyrochlores.
authors.affiliation: Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Onna-son, Okinawa 904-0495, Japan.
authors.forename: L D C
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Jaubert
authors.affiliation: Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Onna-son, Okinawa 904-0495, Japan.
authors.forename: Owen
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Benton
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada.
authors.forename: Jeffrey G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Rau
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, The University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Oitmaa
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of California, Davis, California 95616, USA.
authors.forename: R R P
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Onna-son, Okinawa 904-0495, Japan.
authors.forename: Nic
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shannon
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada.|Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, 31 Caroline North, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 2Y5, Canada.|Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1Z8, Canada.
authors.forename: Michel J P
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Gingras