Abstract

Detecting Majorana fermions in experimental realizations of the Kitaev honeycomb model is often complicated by non-trivial interactions inherent to potential spin liquid candidates. In this work, we identify several distinct thermodynamic signatures of massive, itinerant Majorana fermions within the well-established analytical paradigm of Landau-Fermi liquid theory. We find a qualitative and quantitative agreement between the salient features of our Landau-Majorana liquid theory and the Kitaev spin liquid candidate Ag3LiIr2O6. Our study presents strong evidence for a Fermi liquid-like ground state in the fundamental excitations of a honeycomb iridate, and opens new experimental avenues to detect itinerant Majorana fermions in condensed matter systems.

While Majorana excitations are often considered to be a cornerstone for proposed quantum devices, their experimental detection has proven to be a significant challenge. Here, the authors theoretically and experimentally demonstrate that the Kitaev candidate material Ag3LiIr2O6 may support a Majorana-Fermi surface, which could potentially serve as a “smoking gun” for a quantum spin liquid ground state through the lens of specific heat data.

Details

Title
Signatures of a Majorana-Fermi surface in the Kitaev magnet Ag3LiIr2O6
Author
Heath, Joshuah T. 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Bahrami, Faranak 2 ; Lee, Sangyun 3 ; Movshovich, Roman 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Chen, Xiao 2 ; Tafti, Fazel 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Bedell, Kevin 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 Boston College, Physics Department, Chestnut Hill, USA (GRID:grid.208226.c) (ISNI:0000 0004 0444 7053); Dartmouth College, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Hanover, USA (GRID:grid.254880.3) (ISNI:0000 0001 2179 2404) 
 Boston College, Physics Department, Chestnut Hill, USA (GRID:grid.208226.c) (ISNI:0000 0004 0444 7053) 
 MPA-Q, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, USA (GRID:grid.148313.c) (ISNI:0000 0004 0428 3079) 
Pages
348
Publication year
2023
Publication date
2023
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
23993650
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2895592484
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2023. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.