Generic spiral spin liquids

Abstract

Spiral spin liquids are unique classical spin liquids that occur in many frustrated spin systems, but do not comprise a new phase of matter. Owing to extensive classical ground-state degeneracy, the spins in a spiral spin liquid thermally fluctuate cooperatively from a collection of spiral configurations at low temperatures. These spiral propagation wavevectors form a continuous manifold in reciprocal space, i.e., a spiral contour or a spiral surface, that strongly governs the low-temperature thermal fluctuations and magnetic physics. In this paper, the relevant spin models conveying the spiral spin liquid physics are systematically explored and the geometric origin of the spiral manifold is clarified in the model construction. The spiral spin liquids based on the dimension and the codimension of the spiral manifold are further clarified. For each class, the physical properties are studied both generally and for specific examples. The results are relevant to a wide range of frustrated magnets. A survey of materials is given and future experiments are suggested.