Pyrochlore Spin Ice

Frustrated magnets · 2-in 2-out ice rules · magnetic monopoles

Spin Configuration

Energy Histogram

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Energy
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Violations
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Monopole pairs

Ice rules: On each tetrahedron vertex (here: square plaquette analogue), spins must satisfy 2-in 2-out. This mimics hydrogen positions in water ice (Pauling 1935 entropy: S=Nk·ln(3/2)/2). Violations create emergent magnetic monopoles — defects that behave like free Dirac monopoles, connected by Dirac strings of reversed spins. At low T, the system freezes into a degenerate manifold.