Engineering tunable $p$-wave magnetism in antiferromagnetic bilayers

Abstract

We propose a symmetry-guided route to engineer tunable $p$-wave magnetism in a bilayer system composed of two AB-stacked antiferromagnetic square lattices with their collinear moments nonparallel to each other. We show that an in-plane relative shift between the two layers selectively breaks the symmetries protecting spin degeneracy while preserving time-reversal-related constraints, thereby generating odd-parity spin splitting in a fully compensated magnetic state without spin-orbit coupling. The direction and the magnitude of the resulting $p$-wave spin-splitting, together with the associated spin responses, can be continuously tuned by the in-plane displacement, providing a potential knob for control. We further map the bilayer system onto an effective bond-modulated square lattice and investigate the corresponding Hubbard model within a mean-field framework. The calculated phase diagram reveals extended regions where $p$-wave magnetism with coplanar or chiral spin textures emerges spontaneously. Our results establish a minimal equilibrium platform for realizing and manipulating $p$-wave magnetism in two-dimensional systems.