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We report magnetic properties in the random spinel magnet CoGa2O4. Rietveld analysis of the x-ray diffraction profile for CoGa2O4 reveals that the Co and Ga ions are distributed randomly in the tetrahedral A-sites and octahedral B-sites in the cubic spinel structure. CoGa2O4 exhibits a spin-glass transition at TSG = 8.2 K that is confirmed by measurements of the dc- and ac-susceptibilities and thermoremanent magnetization (TRM) that develops below TSG. From the frequency dependence of the freezing temperature Tf for CoGa2O4, it is indicated that the relaxation time follows a Vogel-Fulcher law. Magnetic entropy is considerably reduced, probably because magnetic cluster formation developed even at T > TSG. The relaxation rate of TRM is considerably enhanced at TSG and decays rapidly above and below TSG. The time course of TRM is reproduced by non-exponential relaxation forms, such as a stretched exponential (Kohlrausch) as well as Ogielski and Weron relaxation forms. This behavior is displayed universally in glass systems, and the characteristic parameters associated with these functions were reasonable., Comment: 34 pages, 14 figures, 3 table

Solids with competing interactions often undergo complex phase transitions with a variety of long-periodic modulations. Among such transition, devil's staircase is the most complex phenomenon, and for it, CeSb is the most famous material, where a number of the distinct phases with long-periodic magnetostructures sequentially appear below the Neel temperature. An evolution of the low-energy electronic structure going through the devil's staircase is of special interest, which has, however, been elusive so far despite the 40-years of intense researches. Here we use bulk-sensitive angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and reveal the devil's staircase transition of the electronic structures. The magnetic reconstruction dramatically alters the band dispersions at each transition. We moreover find that the well-defined band picture largely collapses around the Fermi energy under the long-periodic modulation of the transitional phase, while it recovers at the transition into the lowest-temperature ground state. Our data provide the first direct evidence for a significant reorganization of the electronic structures and spectral functions occurring during the devil's staircase., Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures

The chiral crystal is characterized by a lack of mirror symmetry and an inversion center, resulting in the inequivalent right- and left-handed structures. In the noncentrosymmetric crystal structure, the spin and momentum of electrons are locked in the reciprocal space with the help of the spin-orbit interaction. To reveal the spin textures of chiral crystals, here we investigate the spin and electronic structure in p-type semiconductor elemental tellurium with a chiral crystal structure by using spin- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. Our data demonstrate that the highest valence band crossing the Fermi level has a spin component parallel to the electron momentum around the BZ corners. Significantly, we have also confirmed that the spin polarization is reversed in the crystal with the opposite chirality. The results indicate that the spin textures of the right- and left-handed chiral crystals are hedgehog-like, leading to unconventional magnetoelectric effects and nonreciprocal phenomena., Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures

The major breakthroughs in the understanding of topological materials over the past decade were all triggered by the discovery of the Z$_2$ topological insulator (TI). In three dimensions (3D), the TI is classified as either "strong" or "weak", and experimental confirmations of the strong topological insulator (STI) rapidly followed the theoretical predictions. In contrast, the weak topological insulator has so far eluded experimental verification, since the topological surface states emerge only on particular side surfaces which are typically undetectable in real 3D crystals. Here we provide experimental evidence for the WTI state in a bismuth iodide, $\beta$-Bi4I4. Significantly, the crystal has naturally cleavable top and side planes both stacked via van-der-Waals forces, which have long been desirable for the experimental realization of the WTI state. As a definitive signature of it, we find quasi-1D Dirac TSS at the side-surface (100) while the top-surface (001) is topologically dark. Furthermore, a crystal transition from the $\beta$- to $\alpha$-phase drives a topological phase transition from a nontrivial WTI to the trivial insulator around room temperature. This topological phase, viewed as quantum spin Hall (QSH) insulators stacked three-dimensionally, and excellent functionality with on/off switching will lay a foundation for new technology benefiting from highly directional spin-currents with large density protected against backscattering., Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures

We report an angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES) study of $\beta$-YbAlB$_4$, which is known to harbor unconventional quantum criticality (QC) without any tuning. We directly observe a quasiparticle peak (QP), emerging from hybridization, characterized by a binding energy and an onset of coherence both at about 4 meV. This value conforms with a previously observed reduced Kondo scale at about 40 K. Consistency with an earlier study of carriers in $\beta$-YbAlB$_4$ via the Hall effect strongly suggests that this QP is responsible for the QC in $\beta$-YbAlB$_4$. A comparison with the sister polymorph $\alpha$-YbAlB$_4$, which is not quantum critical at ambient pressure, further supports this result. Indeed, within the limitation of our instrumental resolution, our ARPES measurements do not show tangible sign of hybridization in this locally isomorphic system, while the conduction band we observe is essentially the same as in $\beta$-YbAlB$_4$. We therefore claim that we identified by ARPES the carriers responsible for the QC in $\beta$-YbAlB$_4$. The observed dispersion and the underlying hybridization of this QP are discussed in the context of existing theoretical models., Comment: 12 pages including Supplemental Materials, with 5 figures and 3 supplemental figures

Recent discovery of both gapped and gapless topological phases in weakly correlated electron systems has introduced various relativistic particles and a number of exotic phenomena in condensed matter physics. The Weyl fermion is a prominent example of three dimensional (3D), gapless topological excitation, which has been experimentally identified in inversion symmetry breaking semimetals. However, their realization in spontaneously time reversal symmetry (TRS) breaking magnetically ordered states of correlated materials has so far remained hypothetical. Here, we report a set of experimental evidence for elusive magnetic Weyl fermions in Mn$_3$Sn, a non-collinear antiferromagnet that exhibits a large anomalous Hall effect even at room temperature. Detailed comparison between our angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements and density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveals significant bandwidth renormalization and damping effects due to the strong correlation among Mn 3$d$ electrons. Moreover, our transport measurements have unveiled strong evidence for the chiral anomaly of Weyl fermions, namely, the emergence of positive magnetoconductance only in the presence of parallel electric and magnetic fields. The magnetic Weyl fermions of Mn$_3$Sn have a significant technological potential, since a weak field ($\sim$ 10 mT) is adequate for controlling the distribution of Weyl points and the large fictitious field ($\sim$ a few 100 T) in the momentum space. Our discovery thus lays the foundation for a new field of science and technology involving the magnetic Weyl excitations of strongly correlated electron systems., Comment: 43 pages, 12 figures

We use bulk-sensitive soft X-ray angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and investigate bulk electronic structures of Ce monopnictides (CeX; X=P, As, Sb and Bi). By exploiting a paradigmatic study of the band structures as a function of their spin-orbit coupling (SOC), we draw the topological phase diagram of CeX and unambiguously reveal the topological phase transition from a trivial to a nontrivial regime in going from CeP to CeBi induced by the band inversion. The underlying mechanism of the topological phase transition is elucidated in terms of SOC in concert with their semimetallic band structures. Our comprehensive observations provide a new insight into the band topology hidden in the bulk of solid states., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

Interference of spin-up and spin-down eigenstates depicts spin rotation of electrons, which is a fundamental concept of quantum mechanics and accepts technological challenges for the electrical spin manipulation. Here, we visualize this coherent spin physics through laser spin- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy on a spin-orbital entangled surface-state of a topological insulator. It is unambiguously revealed that the linearly polarized laser can simultaneously excite spin-up and spin-down states and these quantum spin-basis are coherently superposed in photoelectron states. The superposition and the resulting spin rotation is arbitrary manipulated by the direction of the laser field. Moreover, the full observation of the spin rotation displays the phase of the quantum states. This presents a new facet of laser-photoemission technique for investigation of quantum spin physics opening new possibilities in the field of quantum spintronic applications.

We present an angle-resolved photoemission study of the electronic structure of the three-dimensional pyrochlore iridate Nd2Ir2O7 through its magnetic metal-insulator transition. Our data reveal that metallic Nd2Ir2O7 has a quadratic band, touching the Fermi level at the Gamma point, similarly to that of Pr2Ir2O7. The Fermi node state is, therefore, a common feature of the metallic phase of the pyrochlore iridates. Upon cooling below the transition temperature, this compound exhibits a gap opening with an energy shift of quasiparticle peaks like a band gap insulator. The quasiparticle peaks are strongly suppressed, however, with further decrease of temperature, and eventually vanish at the lowest temperature, leaving a non-dispersive flat band lacking long-lived electrons. We thereby identify a remarkable crossover from Slater to Mott insulators with decreasing temperature. These observations explain the puzzling absence of Weyl points in this material, despite its proximity to the zero temperature metal-insulator transition.

Strong spin-orbit coupling fosters exotic electronic states such as topological insulators and superconductors, but the combination of strong spin-orbit and strong electron-electron interactions is just beginning to be understood. Central to this emerging area are the 5d transition metal iridium oxides. Here, in the pyrochlore iridate Pr2Ir2O7, we identify a nontrivial state with a single point Fermi node protected by cubic and time-reversal symmetries, using a combination of angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and first principles calculations. Owing to its quadratic dispersion, the unique coincidence of four degenerate states at the Fermi energy, and strong Coulomb interactions, non-Fermi liquid behavior is predicted, for which we observe some evidence. Our discovery implies that Pr2Ir2O7 is a parent state that can be manipulated to produce other strongly correlated topological phases, such as topological Mott insulator, Weyl semi-metal, and quantum spin and anomalous Hall states.

We give an affirmative answer to the Halperin-Carlsson conjecture for the homologically injective torus actions on closed manifolds. This class contains holomorphic torus actions on compact Kahler manifolds, torus actions on compact Riemannian flat manifolds., Comment: 11 pages