Scientists from the University of Warsaw and the University of British Columbia have described how the “lone spinon” phenomenon can arise in magnetic models. This discovery represents a significant contribution to our understanding of the nature of magnetism and could have implications for the development of future technologies such as quantum computers and new magnetic materials. The research results have been published in the journal „Physical Review Letters”.

Magnets are now an integral part of modern technologies – they are in computer memories, loudspeakers, electric motors, and medical diagnostics. However, the nature of magnetic phenomena has still not been comprehensively studied.

In their latest paper published in the journal “Physical Review Letters” physicists from the Faculty of Physics  at the University of Warsaw and the University of British Columbia describe the creation of the so-called lone spinon.

“This is an exotic quantum excitation that can be created very simply: by simply adding one additional spin to the ground state of the one-dimensional Heisenberg model, a theoretical description of a series of interacting spins,” explains Prof. Miłosz Panfil from the UW Faculty of Physics.

“This simple procedure allows us to better understand how quantum excitations arise in magnetic materials, which may be important for the development of quantum computers and new types of materials,” adds Prof. Krzysztof Wohlfeld from the UW Faculty of Physics.

A Lonely Spinon

Researchers also discovered that the same effect can be achieved by using a simplified model, the so-called VBS (valence-bond solid), instead of the ground state, in which spins pair up in an ordered way.

“In this model, a spinon can be understood as a single unpaired spin that ‘travels’ through a network of such paired spins. This is a result of the strong interaction between electrons and quantum phenomena such as quantum entanglement,” says Teresa Kulka, a doctoral candidate conducting research at the UW Faculty of Physics.

Similar mechanisms play a key role in such fundamental phenomena as high-temperature superconductivity and the fractional Hall effect in two-dimensional quantum liquids. Quantum entanglement is also the foundation of quantum computers and quantum computing as a whole. It is an important step towards a better understanding of the quantum properties of magnets.

“Our research not only deepens our knowledge of magnets but may also have far-reaching implications in other fields of physics and technology,” concludes Prof. Krzysztof Wohlfeld.