A quantum magnetic analogue to the critical point of water

Authors:
  • JJJ. Larrea Jiménez
    J. Larrea Jiménez
  • SCS. P. G. Crone
    S. P. G. Crone
  • EFE. Fogh
    E. Fogh
  • MZM. E. Zayed
    M. E. Zayed
  • RLR. Lortz
    R. Lortz
  • EPE. Pomjakushina
    E. Pomjakushina
  • KCK. Conder
    K. Conder
  • ALA. M. Läuchli
    A. M. Läuchli
  • LWL. Weber
    L. Weber
  • SWS. Wessel
    S. Wessel
  • AHA. Honecker
    A. Honecker
  • BNB. Normand
    B. Normand

Abstract
At the familiar liquid-gas phase transition in water, the density jumps discontinuously at atmospheric pressure, but the line of these first-order transitions defined by increasing pressures terminates at the critical point, a concept ubiquitous in statistical thermodynamics. In correlated quantum materials, a critical point was predicted and measured terminating the line of Mott metal-insulator transitions, which are also first-order with a discontinuous charge density. In quantum spin systems, continuous quantum phase transitions (QPTs) have been investigated extensively, but discontinuous QPTs have received less attention. The frustrated quantum antiferromagnet SrCu$_2$(BO$_3$)$_2$ constitutes a near-exact realization of the paradigmatic Shastry-Sutherland model and displays exotic phenomena including magnetization plateaux, anomalous thermodynamics and discontinuous QPTs. We demonstrate by high-precision specific-heat measurements under pressure and applied magnetic field that, like water, the pressure-temperature phase diagram of SrCu$_2$(BO$_3$)$_2$ has an Ising critical point terminating a first-order transition line, which separates phases with different densities of magnetic particles (triplets). We achieve a quantitative explanation of our data by detailed numerical calculations using newly-developed finite-temperature tensor-network methods. These results open a new dimension in understanding the thermodynamics of quantum magnetic materials, where the anisotropic spin interactions producing topological properties for spintronic applications drive an increasing focus on first-order QPTs.
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