Spin ice (nonfiction): Difference between revisions

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File:Nobel Ice (Fabergé egg).jpg|Fabergé egg made from Spin Ice is [[Dysprosium Titanate|relic of age]], warn [[Gem detective (nonfiction)|Gem detectives]].
File:Nobel Ice (Fabergé egg).jpg|Fabergé egg made from Spin Ice is [[Dysprosium Titanate|relic of age]], warn [[Gem detective (nonfiction)|Gem detectives]].
File:Gnotilus-fighting-Heracles.jpg|link=Gnotilus|[[Gnotilus]] has an unlucky habit of slipping and falling on Spin Ice.
File:Gnotilus-fighting-Heracles.jpg|link=Gnotilus|[[Gnotilus]] has an unlucky habit of slipping and falling on Spin Ice.
Brion_Gysin.jpg|Brion Gysion uses [[scrying engine]] to preview [[Gnotilus]] slipping on Spin Ice; party guests amused; [[Gnotilus]], embarrassed, vows redemptive action.
Brion_Gysin.jpg|Brion Gysion uses [[scrying engine]] to preview [[Gnotilus]] slipping on Spin Ice.
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Revision as of 07:06, 16 June 2016

The arrangement of spins (black arrows) in a spin ice.

A spin ice is a substance that does not have a single minimal-energy state.

It has "spin" degrees of freedom, i.e., it is a magnet, with frustrated interactions that prevent it from completely freezing.

Spin ices show low-temperature properties, residual entropy in particular, closely related to those of crystalline water ice.

The most prominent compounds with such properties are dysprosium titanate (nonfiction) and holmium titanate.

The magnetic ordering of a spin ice resembles the positional ordering of hydrogen atoms in conventional water ice.

Recent experiments have found evidence for the existence of deconfined magnetic monopoles in these materials, with analogous properties to the hypothetical magnetic monopoles postulated to exist in the vacuum.

In the News

Fiction cross-reference

Nonfiction cross-reference

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