Magnetic Monopole Supercurrent through a Quantum Spin Ice Tunnel Junction

Abstract

Magnetic monopoles are hypothetical particles that may exist as quantized sources and sinks of the magnetic field. In materials, they may appear in an emergent quantum electrodynamics described by a U(1) lattice gauge theory. Particularly, quantum spin ice hosts monopoles as bosonic spinons coupled to emergent gauge fields in a U(1) quantum spin liquid, namely, a deconfined Coulomb phase. When monopoles are condensed to form a long-range order, monopoles and gauge fields are screened and confined. Here we show, however, that monopole supercurrent flows across a junction of two ferromagnets that are weakly linked through and placed on top of the U(1) QSL, when a gauge-invariant phase difference of spinons across the junction is generated by quenching or an applied electric voltage parallel to the junction. This novel phenomenon paves the way to a new paradigm of spinonics for a dissipationless control of magnetism.