Multicolor groups for molecules and solids

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Ma, Hai-Yang, Zhang, Shihao, Xu, Hu, Zhang, Shengbai, Jia, Jin-Feng
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Ma, Hai-Yang
Zhang, Shihao
Xu, Hu
Zhang, Shengbai
Jia, Jin-Feng
author_facet Ma, Hai-Yang
Zhang, Shihao
Xu, Hu
Zhang, Shengbai
Jia, Jin-Feng
contents The local magnetic moments of atoms in a molecule or solid can be designated by different colors. Magnetic groups, or 2-color groups, or black-and-white groups have been applied in crystallography to classify different magnets. Despite its successes in the past decades, the recent advents of altermagnets and p-wave magnets raise new challenges to this long-standing framework, which urges for a new and unified one. Here we develop a multicolor group classification framework to classify all kinds of molecules and solids, including nonmagnetic materials and magnets with collinear or non-collinear magnetism, and with or without spin-orbit couplings (SOC). This new scheme can unify the classifications of matters into a single framework, including the recently identified altermagnets and p-wave magnets. Especially, altermagnetic topological matters and p-wave magnets with SOC, can also be diagnosed with multicolor groups, a task which can not be accomplished by magnetic space groups and spin space groups. Moreover, insufficiencies and misconceptions of conventional magnetic group classification can be supplemented through this new framework. Multicolor group will serve as a new stage in the symmetry classification of matters.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_03842
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Multicolor groups for molecules and solids
Ma, Hai-Yang
Zhang, Shihao
Xu, Hu
Zhang, Shengbai
Jia, Jin-Feng
Materials Science
Other Condensed Matter
The local magnetic moments of atoms in a molecule or solid can be designated by different colors. Magnetic groups, or 2-color groups, or black-and-white groups have been applied in crystallography to classify different magnets. Despite its successes in the past decades, the recent advents of altermagnets and p-wave magnets raise new challenges to this long-standing framework, which urges for a new and unified one. Here we develop a multicolor group classification framework to classify all kinds of molecules and solids, including nonmagnetic materials and magnets with collinear or non-collinear magnetism, and with or without spin-orbit couplings (SOC). This new scheme can unify the classifications of matters into a single framework, including the recently identified altermagnets and p-wave magnets. Especially, altermagnetic topological matters and p-wave magnets with SOC, can also be diagnosed with multicolor groups, a task which can not be accomplished by magnetic space groups and spin space groups. Moreover, insufficiencies and misconceptions of conventional magnetic group classification can be supplemented through this new framework. Multicolor group will serve as a new stage in the symmetry classification of matters.
title Multicolor groups for molecules and solids
topic Materials Science
Other Condensed Matter
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.03842