Instantons in chiral magnets

Masaru Hongo, Toshiaki Fujimori, Tatsuhiro Misumi, Muneto Nitta, Norisuke Sakai

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We exhaustively construct instanton solutions and elucidate their properties in one-dimensional antiferromagnetic chiral magnets based on the O(3) nonlinear sigma model description of spin chains with the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction. By introducing an easy-Axis potential and a staggered magnetic field, we obtain a phase diagram consisting of ground-state phases with two points (or one point) in the easy-Axis dominant cases, a helical modulation at a fixed latitude of the sphere, and a tricritical point allowing helical modulations at an arbitrary latitude. We find that instantons (or skyrmions in two-dimensional Euclidean space) appear as composite solitons in different fashions in these phases: Temporal domain walls or wall-Antiwall pairs (bions) in the easy-Axis dominant cases, dislocations (or phase slips called merons) with fractional instanton numbers in the helical state, and isolated instantons and calorons living on the top of the helical modulation at the tricritical point. We also show that the models with DM interaction and an easy-plane potential can be mapped into those without them, providing a useful tool to investigate the model with the DM interaction.

Original languageEnglish
Article number104417
JournalPhysical Review B
Volume101
Issue number10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020 Mar 1

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Condensed Matter Physics

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