2017/09/30 by V. Martelli, Valentina Martelli, Ang Cai +23 · 33 citations
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic orbital #Condensed matter physics #Degrees of freedom (physics and chemistry) #Electron #Iron-based superconductors research #Physics #Quantum #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum entanglement #Quantum mechanics #Rare-earth and actinide compounds #Simple (philosophy) #Spin (aerodynamics) #Spins #Statistical physics #Theoretical physics #cond-mat.str-el
paper · pdf · doi:10.1073/pnas.1908101116
published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116(36), 17701-17706 (National Academy of Sciences) · 21 pages, 4 figures (preprint format)
openalex publication_date 2019/08/20 · arxiv created 2019/10/08 · arxiv updated 2019/10/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Complex and correlated quantum systems with promise for new functionality often involve entwined electronic degrees of freedom. In such materials, highly unusual properties emerge and could be the result of electron localization. Here, a cubic heavy fermion metal governed by spins and orbitals is chosen as a model system for this physics. Its properties are found to originate from surprisingly simple low-energy behavior, with 2 distinct localization transitions driven by a single degree of freedom at a time. This result is unexpected, but we are able to understand it by advancing the notion of sequential destruction of an SU(4) spin-orbital-coupled Kondo entanglement. Our results implicate electron localization as a unified framework for strongly correlated materials and suggest ways to exploit multiple degrees of freedom for quantum engineering.