"The modulated spin liquid and hidden order in URu2Si2"
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We have shown that near a Kondo breakdown critical point, a spin liquid with
spatial modulations is likely to be formed. Unlike its uniform counterpart, we
find that this occurs via a second order phase transition. The amount of entropy
quenched when this ordering is manifest is of the same magnitude as for an
antiferromagnet. Moreover, these two states are in direct competition with each
other, and at low temperatures they are separated by a first order phase
transition. This suggests that the modulated spin liquid is indeed a viable
candidate for the unique phase of matter which is observed in the hidden order
phase of URu2Si2. We investigate the modulated spin liquid proposal taking full
account of the tetragonal-body-centered lattice structure which characterizes
URu2Si2. We find that the physical quantities predicted from the model are in
very good qualitative and quantitative agreement with recent experiments,
including thermodynamic properties, inelastic neutron scattering, and Fermi
surface measurements.
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C. Pepin, M.R. Norman, S. Burdin, and A. Ferraz, Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 106601
(2011)
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C. Thomas, S. Burdin, M.R. Norman, C. Pepin, and A. Ferraz, in preparation.