Elastic Quantum Criticality in Nematics and Altermagnets via the Elasto-Caloric Effect

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Auteurs principaux: Steward, Charles R. W., Palle, Grgur, Garst, Markus, Schmalian, Joerg, Jang, Iksu
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Steward, Charles R. W.
Palle, Grgur
Garst, Markus
Schmalian, Joerg
Jang, Iksu
author_facet Steward, Charles R. W.
Palle, Grgur
Garst, Markus
Schmalian, Joerg
Jang, Iksu
contents The coupling between electronic nematic degrees of freedom and acoustic phonons is known to significantly alter the universality class of a nematic quantum critical point (QCP). While non-Fermi-liquid behaviour emerges in the absence of lattice coupling, the inclusion of interactions with acoustic phonons results in observables such as heat capacity and single-particle scattering rate exhibiting only subleading non-analytic corrections to dominant Fermi-liquid terms. In this work, we demonstrate that the elastocaloric effect (ECE) -- the adiabatic temperature change under varying strain -- and the thermal expansion deviate from this pattern. Despite lattice coupling weakening the singularity of the ECE, it preserves a dominant non-Fermi-liquid temperature dependence. By drawing analogies between nematic systems and field-tuned altermagnets, we further show that similar responses are expected for the ECE near altermagnetic QCPs. We classify the types of piezomagnetic couplings and analyse the regimes arising from field-tuned magnetoelastic interactions. Our findings are shown to be consistent with the scaling theory for elastic quantum criticality and they further emphasize the suitability of the ECE as a sensitive probe near QCPs.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_14033
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Elastic Quantum Criticality in Nematics and Altermagnets via the Elasto-Caloric Effect
Steward, Charles R. W.
Palle, Grgur
Garst, Markus
Schmalian, Joerg
Jang, Iksu
Strongly Correlated Electrons
The coupling between electronic nematic degrees of freedom and acoustic phonons is known to significantly alter the universality class of a nematic quantum critical point (QCP). While non-Fermi-liquid behaviour emerges in the absence of lattice coupling, the inclusion of interactions with acoustic phonons results in observables such as heat capacity and single-particle scattering rate exhibiting only subleading non-analytic corrections to dominant Fermi-liquid terms. In this work, we demonstrate that the elastocaloric effect (ECE) -- the adiabatic temperature change under varying strain -- and the thermal expansion deviate from this pattern. Despite lattice coupling weakening the singularity of the ECE, it preserves a dominant non-Fermi-liquid temperature dependence. By drawing analogies between nematic systems and field-tuned altermagnets, we further show that similar responses are expected for the ECE near altermagnetic QCPs. We classify the types of piezomagnetic couplings and analyse the regimes arising from field-tuned magnetoelastic interactions. Our findings are shown to be consistent with the scaling theory for elastic quantum criticality and they further emphasize the suitability of the ECE as a sensitive probe near QCPs.
title Elastic Quantum Criticality in Nematics and Altermagnets via the Elasto-Caloric Effect
topic Strongly Correlated Electrons
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.14033