Pyrochlore-technics

In many metals, some electrons freely move while others act only as tiny magnets (“spins”). In simple cases, the spins align producing a magnet. This art predicts the complex case of the spins’ behavior in YMn2 (background) as it depends on the mobile electrons (black lines and vertical position).

Second order perturbation theory is used to calculate the spin-spin forces from the tight-binding mobile electron’s band structure (black lines) on the pyrochlore lattice, as is relevant to Yttrium dimanganese (YMn2), with the vertical position indicating the chemical potential. The spin-spin correlations at intermediate temperatures (background), which are measured in neutron scattering experiments, are then computed using a self-consistent Gaussian approximation for the spins.