Probing magnetic correlations in space and time within predefined topological sectors of a macroscopic spin liquid
Abstract
The triangular Ising antiferromagnet, with its residual entropy density and critical correlations at absolute zero, is the archetype of a two-dimensional spin liquid. Its ground state is partitioned into topological sectors connected by global spin flip events that wrap the lattice boundaries, and become statistically irrelevant in the thermodynamic limit where magnetic fluctuations are restricted to the dominant sector. Thus far, these properties have been mainly investigated from a theoretical perspective, and one might wonder to what extent they can be transposed to real materials. Here, we present experimental observations obtained in an artificial, macroscopic realisation of the seminal triangular Ising antiferromagnet that consists of a lattice of millimeter-sized NdFeB cylinders put into motion by a mechanical shaker. Specifically, we demonstrate that the very-low-energy physics and the true ground state of this model can be reached experimentally. Besides, we are able to probe, in space and time, the magnetic properties within manually preselected pockets of the ground-state manifold that emulate, to a good approximation, the behaviour in distinct topological sectors. Our approach opens new avenues for naked-eye visualisation and hand manipulation of many-body phenomena associated to frustrated magnetism and models of statistical physics.
Versions
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BibTeX
@article{dangoisse2026probing,
title = {{Probing magnetic correlations in space and time within predefined topological sectors of a macroscopic spin liquid}},
author = {Rémy Dangoisse and Jeanne Colbois and Laurent del Rey and Nicolas Rougemaille and Johann Coraux},
journal = {Nature Communications},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1038/s41467-026-76906-5},
eprint = {2609.07140},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05774827v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Probing magnetic correlations in space and time within predefined topological sectors of a macroscopic spin liquid
AU - Rémy Dangoisse
AU - Jeanne Colbois
AU - Laurent del Rey
AU - Nicolas Rougemaille
AU - Johann Coraux
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/07
JO - Nature Communications
DO - 10.1038/s41467-026-76906-5
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05774827v1
AB - The triangular Ising antiferromagnet, with its residual entropy density and critical correlations at absolute zero, is the archetype of a two-dimensional spin liquid. Its ground state is partitioned into topological sectors connected by global spin flip events that wrap the lattice boundaries, and become statistically irrelevant in the thermodynamic limit where magnetic fluctuations are restricted to the dominant sector. Thus far, these properties have been mainly investigated from a theoretical perspective, and one might wonder to what extent they can be transposed to real materials. Here, we present experimental observations obtained in an artificial, macroscopic realisation of the seminal triangular Ising antiferromagnet that consists of a lattice of millimeter-sized NdFeB cylinders put into motion by a mechanical shaker. Specifically, we demonstrate that the very-low-energy physics and the true ground state of this model can be reached experimentally. Besides, we are able to probe, in space and time, the magnetic properties within manually preselected pockets of the ground-state manifold that emulate, to a good approximation, the behaviour in distinct topological sectors. Our approach opens new avenues for naked-eye visualisation and hand manipulation of many-body phenomena associated to frustrated magnetism and models of statistical physics.
SN - 2041-1723
SN - 2041-1723
ER -