Magnetic fragmentation within an arctic circle

In frustrated spin systems, the ground state manifold is often completely defined by local constrains inherited from the frustrated nature of spin interactions. These constraints give rise to exotic phases hosting for instance very peculiar dynamics: magnetic monopoles, loop-like excitations, etc. While these systems have been studied widely under open or periodic boundaries conditions, recent interest has been given to another kind of boundaries in 2D: Domain Wall Boundary Conditions. By fixing the spins on the borders of the system in a controlled way, the collective organisation unexpectedly propagates at long distance within the bulk of the system, which results in a phase separation. This is known as the Arctic Circle Phenomenon [1]. We show in this work that a Monte Carlo approach with the appropriate dynamics highlights this phenomenon in several models that are experimentally accessible with the use of meta magnets, like artificial spin ices [2]. More precisely, we demonstrate that we may observe a fragmented spin liquid [3] within a kagome-based Arctic Circle.


[1] L F Cugliandolo, G Gonnella, and A Pelizzola. J. Stat. Mech. (2015)
[2] Y Perrin, B Canals, and N Rougemaille. Nature (2016)
[3] B Canals, I Chioar, V Nguyen, et al. Nat. Com. (2016).