Physics & Astronomy Professor Vesna Mitrovic, Brown University: "Probing Emergent Quantum Orders"

Study of the combined effects of strong electronic correlations with spin-orbit entanglement represents a central issue in quantum materials research. Predicting emergent properties represents a huge theoretical problem, since the presence of spin-orbit coupling implies that the spin is not a good quantum number. Existing theories propose the emergence of a multitude of exotic quantum phases, distinguishable by either local point symmetry breaking or local spin expectation values, even in materials with simple cubic crystal structure. Experimental tests of these theories by local probes are highly sought for.

In the talk, I will present our work on harnessing local measurements designed to concurrently probe spin and orbital/lattice degrees of freedom that provide such tests [1]. Our results, to be presented, establish that multipolar spin interactions [2] are an essential ingredient of quantum theories of magnetism in materials with both strong correlations and spin-orbit entanglement, in general. I will briefly discuss other techniques that we are designing to probe emergent tensor orders.