Phase-slip residual-order spin state in FeSe

Abstract

In unconventional superconductors, the microscopic form of magnetic correlations is crucial for identifying the origin of spin fluctuations and the associated pairing interaction. FeSe superconducts without chemical doping and shows no static long-range magnetic order, yet inelastic neutron scattering reveals a strong stripe response, finite linewidths, and reproducible Neel-side spectral weight. Here we propose a phase-slip residual-order spin state (ROSS). Stripe, Neel, pair-checkerboard, and staggered trimer antiferromagnetic states can be unified as symmetric phase-slip derivatives of a stripe background, while more general asymmetric phase slips form lower-energy configurations and reconstruct the spin structure factor S(q) within a finite coherence length. The ROSS therefore reconciles the absence of static magnetic order with strong spin excitations, provides a microscopic picture for the origin of spin fluctuations in FeSe, and establishes a magnetic basis for understanding pairing in unconventional superconducting systems with similar magnetic fingerprints.