The Physics & Astronomy Colloquium Series presents Nandini Trivedi of The Ohio State University, discussing "Fractionalized Excitations in Quantum Spin Liquids and their Detection" on Feburary 13.

Abstract:  The 2022 Nobel prize celebrates the detection of entanglement between two photons. Quantum spin liquids (QSLs) are long-range entangled states of matter of billions of interacting qubits or spins that develop in a Mott insulator. The possibility of obtaining QSL phases is enhanced by having a low spin and enhanced quantum fluctuations, and frustration arising from the lattice geometry and/or competing spin-spin interactions. Remarkably QSLs harbor fractionalized excitations rather than the conventional spin waves of ordered magnets that carry integer units of angular momentum.

In my talk I will identify detectable signatures of these fractionalized excitations in experiments. These fractionalized excitations are promising candidates to create logical qubits for quantum computation.