Seeing the light: Experimental signatures of emergent electromagnetism in a quantum spin ice
Seeing the light: Experimental signatures of emergent electromagnetism in a quantum spin ice
The ``spin-ice'' state found in the rare-earth pyrochlore magnets Ho${}_{2}$Ti${}_{2}$O${}_{7}$ and Dy${}_{2}$Ti${}_{2}$O${}_{7}$ offers a beautiful realization of classical magnetostatics, complete with magnetic monopole excitations. It has been suggested that in ``quantum spin-ice'' materials, quantum-mechanical tunneling between different ice configurations, could convert the magnetostatics of spin ice into a quantum spin …