Comment on: Microscopic signatures of an imaginary charge density wave in a kagome metal
Abstract
Recently, Suetsugu at al. reported microscopic signatures of an imaginary charge density wave (iCDW) and TRSB in CsV3Sb5 at T* ≈ 120 K, attributing nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) linewidths and asymmetric Zeeman-perturbed NQR (Zp-NQR) lineshapes to chiral loop currents in [arXiv:2605.05101; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-026-03339-8]. In this Comment, we demonstrate that these observations are not evidence of exotic physics but are instead fully explained by crystalline mosaicity and pre-transitional CDW fluctuations. Through exact diagonalization of the full nuclear-spin Hamiltonian, we show that the observed asymmetric lineshapes arise naturally from an angular mosaic spread in the Zp-NQR regime, completely reproducing the data without the need for internal magnetic fields. Furthermore, we reveal that the reported emergent local field (hloc) is an artifact resulting from unjustified and unreported fitting constraints, and the use of an approximate perturbative model. Strikingly, we point out that this local-field model required for the proposed iCDW produces features that are absent in the data. Addressing the recent Reply by Suetsugu at al. [arXiv:2608.24927v1], we show that these core issues remain unresolved: the linewidth follows a standard Curie-Weiss law with no phase transition at T*, and their definition of mosaicity overlooks well-documented strain-mediated lattice distortions. Most critically, when the full Hamiltonian is solved exactly and the artificial fitting constraints are removed, the inferred loop-current signature vanishes (hloc → 0). We therefore conclude that the claim of an iCDW state in in Ref. [arXiv:2605.05101; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-026-03339-8] is unsupported by the data, arising instead from incomplete spectral simulations and inadequate theoretical modeling.
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BibTeX
@misc{nikolov2026comment,
title = {{Comment on: Microscopic signatures of an imaginary charge density wave in a kagome metal}},
author = {Ilija K. Nikolov and Adrien Rosuel and Vesna F. Mitrović},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.13579},
eprint = {2608.13579},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.13579},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Comment on: Microscopic signatures of an imaginary charge density wave in a kagome metal
AU - Ilija K. Nikolov
AU - Adrien Rosuel
AU - Vesna F. Mitrović
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/06
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.13579
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.13579
AB - Recently, Suetsugu at al. reported microscopic signatures of an imaginary charge density wave (iCDW) and TRSB in CsV_3Sb_5 at T^* ≈ 120 K, attributing nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) linewidths and asymmetric Zeeman-perturbed NQR (Zp-NQR) lineshapes to chiral loop currents in [arXiv:2605.05101; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-026-03339-8]. In this Comment, we demonstrate that these observations are not evidence of exotic physics but are instead fully explained by crystalline mosaicity and pre-transitional CDW fluctuations. Through exact diagonalization of the full nuclear-spin Hamiltonian, we show that the observed asymmetric lineshapes arise naturally from an angular mosaic spread in the Zp-NQR regime, completely reproducing the data without the need for internal magnetic fields. Furthermore, we reveal that the reported emergent local field (h_loc) is an artifact resulting from unjustified and unreported fitting constraints, and the use of an approximate perturbative model. Strikingly, we point out that this local-field model required for the proposed iCDW produces features that are absent in the data. Addressing the recent Reply by Suetsugu at al. [arXiv:2608.24927v1], we show that these core issues remain unresolved: the linewidth follows a standard Curie-Weiss law with no phase transition at T^*, and their definition of mosaicity overlooks well-documented strain-mediated lattice distortions. Most critically, when the full Hamiltonian is solved exactly and the artificial fitting constraints are removed, the inferred loop-current signature vanishes (h_loc → 0). We therefore conclude that the claim of an iCDW state in in Ref. [arXiv:2605.05101; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-026-03339-8] is unsupported by the data, arising instead from incomplete spectral simulations and inadequate theoretical modeling.
ER -