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Fractional spinon excitations in the quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chain

Type of publication Peer-reviewed
Publikationsform Original article (peer-reviewed)
Author Mourigal Martin, Enderle Mechthild, Kloepperpieper Axel, Caux Jean-Sebastien, Stunault Anne, Ronnow Henrik M.,
Project Quantum Magnetism - Spinons, Skyrmions and Dipoles
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Original article (peer-reviewed)

Journal NATURE PHYSICS
Volume (Issue) 9(7)
Page(s) 435 - 441
Title of proceedings NATURE PHYSICS
DOI 10.1038/nphys2652

Open Access

URL https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/189519?ln=en
Type of Open Access Repository (Green Open Access)

Abstract

One of the simplest quantum many-body systems is the spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chain, a linear array of interacting magnetic moments. Its exact ground state is a macroscopic singlet entangling all spins in the chain. Its elementary excitations, called spinons, are fractional spin-1/2 quasiparticles created and detected in pairs by neutron scattering. Theoretical predictions show that two-spinon states exhaust only 71% of the spectral weight and higher-order spinon states, yet to be experimentally located, are predicted to participate in the remaining. Here, by accurate absolute normalization of our inelastic neutron scattering data on a spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chain compound, we account for the full spectral weight to within 99(8)%. Our data thus establish and quantify the existence of higher-order spinon states. The observation that, within error bars, the experimental line shape resembles a rescaled two-spinon one with similar boundaries allows us to develop a simple picture for understanding multi-spinon excitations.
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