Bose-Einstein condensations of magnons in quantum magnets with spin-orbit coupling in a Zeeman field

Abstract

We study the response of a quantum magnet with spin-orbit coupling (SOC) to a Zeeman field by constructing effective actions and performing Renormalization Group (RG) analysis. There are several novel classes of quantum phase transitions at a low $ h_{c1} $ and an upper critical field $ h_{c2} $ driven by magnon condensations at commensurate (C-) or in-commensurate (IC-) momenta $ 0 < k_0 < \pi $. The intermediate IC- Skyrmion crystal (IC-SkX) phase is controlled by a line of fixed points in the RG flows labeled by $ k_0 $. We derive the relations between the quantum spin and the order parameters of the effective actions which determine the spin-orbital structures of the IC-SkX phase. We also analyze the operator contents near $ h_{c1} $ and $ h_{c2} $ which determine the exotic excitation spectra inside the IC-SkX. The intrinsic differences between the magnon condensations at the C- and IC- momenta are explored. The two critical fields $ h_{c1} < h_{c2} $ and the intermediate IC-SkX phase could be a generic feature to any quantum magnets with SOC in a Zeeman field. Experimental implications to some materials or cold atom systems with SOC in a Zeeman field are presented.