Fragile magnetic order in metallic quasicrystals

Abstract

Inspired by recent experimental studies of local magnetic moments interacting with a metallic quasicrystal, we study the low-temperature fate of spins placed in two-dimensional tilings. In the diluted local moment limit, we calculate the spin relaxation rate $1/T_{1}$, as measured by electron spin resonance, and show that it displays a marked dependence on the system size $N$ and the filing $n$ of the electronic bath. For a finite concentration of spins, we integrate out the conduction electrons and generate an effective magnetic coupling between the local moments, which we treat as Ising spins. Despite the strongly frustrating nature of the magnetic couplings and the lack of periodicity in the problem, we find long-range orders for finite $N$ in our large-scale Monte Carlo simulations. However, the resulting magnetically state is fragile, as clusters of essentially free spins fluctuate down to very low temperatures.