{"id":452,"date":"2026-06-10T14:28:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T20:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/physlabs.colostate.edu\/chengroup\/?p=452"},"modified":"2026-06-10T14:28:57","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T20:28:57","slug":"seeing-hidden-order-in-kagome-spin-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/physlabs.colostate.edu\/chengroup\/2026\/06\/10\/seeing-hidden-order-in-kagome-spin-ice\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeing Hidden Order in Kagome Spin Ice"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Frustrated magnets are fascinating partly because they often refuse to order in the usual way. In kagome spin ice, the magnetic moments are constrained by a local “ice rule”, which produces many nearly equivalent spin configurations and makes conventional magnetic order difficult to establish, as well as to characterize. This becomes especially subtle when the ordered state breaks time-reversal symmetry but carries no net magnetization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a recent collaboration [1], we studied this problem in the kagome spin-ice compound HoAgGe. Using neutron scattering, thermodynamic measurements, and Monte Carlo simulations, we found that HoAgGe orders through a three-dimensional XY transition. This is an interesting and previously unexplored ordering pathway for quasi-two-dimensional kagome spin ice realized in an actual crystal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A key message of the work is that nonlinear susceptibility can reveal hidden time-reversal-symmetry breaking even when there is no macroscopic magnetic moment. In HoAgGe, the two time-reversal-related ground states cannot be easily distinguished by linear magnetic response, but they respond differently at nonlinear order. Microscopically, this behavior is tied to ice-rule-compatible one-spin-flip excitations, suggesting that the effect is not a peculiarity of HoAgGe but a more general property of kagome spin ice with the same type of ground state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We hope this work helps establish nonlinear magnetic susceptibility as a useful probe of hidden magnetic order in frustrated magnets. More broadly, it shows that real kagome spin-ice materials can host ordering phenomena that are richer than those captured by idealized two-dimensional models, and may continue to inspire new theoretical and experimental developments in frustrated magnetism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[1] K. Zhao, H. Deng, H. Chen, N. Ma, N. Oefele, J. Guo, X. Cui, C. Tang, M. J. Gutmann, T. Mueller, Y. Su, V. Hutanu, C. Jin, and P. Gegenwart, \u201cThree-Dimensional XY Universality and Nonlinear Magnetic Susceptibility in a Kagome Ice Compound\u201d, Physical Review X<\/em> 16<\/strong>, 021043 (2026)<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Frustrated magnets are fascinating partly because they often refuse to order in the usual way. In kagome spin ice, the magnetic moments are constrained by a local “ice rule”, which produces many nearly equivalent spin configurations and makes conventional magnetic order difficult to establish, as well as to characterize. This becomes especially subtle when the … <\/p>\n

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