Quantum spin liquid: from drought to deluge |
The idea of anti-ferromagnetic order was initially greeted with skepticism when Louis Néel introduced it in the '30s but is now considered obvious. Indeed, the search for an exception has turned up empty-handed for 30 years until recently, when a couple of promising examples have surfaced. I shall describe these examples and argue that if confirmed, this represents a new state of matter, called quantum spin liquid, which exhibits novel properties such as emergent fermionic excitations and gauge fields.
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