Kosterlitz-Thouless Melting of Magnetic Order in the Triangular Quantum Ising Material TmMgGaO$_4$

Abstract

Frustrated magnets host the promises of material realizations of new paradigm of quantum matter, while direct comparison of unbiased model calculations with experimental measurements is still very challenging. Here, we design and implement a protocol of employing many-body computation methodologies for accurate model calculation -- both equilibrium and dynamical properties -- of a frustrated rare-earth magnet TmMgGaO$_4$ (TMGO), which perfectly explains the corresponding experimental findings. Our results confirm TMGO is an ideal realization of triangular-lattice Ising model with an intrinsic transverse field. The magnetic order of TMGO is predicted to melt through two successive Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) phase transitions, with a floating KT phase in between. The dynamical spectra calculated suggest remnant images of a vanishing magnetic stripe order that represent vortex-antivortex pairs, resembling rotons in a superfluid helium film. TMGO therefore constitutes a rare quantum magnet for realizing KT physics and we further propose experimental detections of its intriguing properties.