Open AccessSplitting of the magnetic monopole pair-creation energy in spin ice
Author(s) -
Jacob Hornung,
Tino Gottschall,
L. Opherden,
Mathis Antlauf,
Marcus Schwarz,
Edwin Kroke,
T. Herrmannsdörfer,
J. Wosnitza
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of physics. condensed matter
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.908
H-Index - 228
eISSN - 1361-648X
pISSN - 0953-8984
DOI - 10.1088/1361-648x/ab9054
Subject(s) - spin ice , magnetic monopole , dipole , magnetic dipole , physics , condensed matter physics , degeneracy (biology) , relaxation (psychology) , electric dipole moment , spin (aerodynamics) , magnetic energy , magnetic field , magnetization , quantum mechanics , thermodynamics , psychology , social psychology , bioinformatics , biology
The thermodynamics in spin-ice systems are governed by emergent magnetic monopole excitations and, until now, the creation of a pair of these topological defects was associated with one specific pair-creation energy. Here, we show that the electric dipole moments inherent to the magnetic monopoles lift the degeneracy of their creation process and lead to a splitting of the pair-creation energy. We consider this finding to extend the model of magnetic relaxation in spin-ice systems and show that an electric dipole interaction in the theoretically estimated order of magnitude leads to a splitting which can explain the controversially discussed discrepancies between the measured temperature dependence of the magnetic relaxation times and previous theory. By applying our extended model to experimental data of, various spin-ice systems, we show its universal applicability and determine a dependence of the electric dipole interaction on the system parameters, which is in accordance with the theoretical model of electric dipole formation.