Abstract
Quantum spin liquids are exotic states of matter first predicted more than 40 years ago. An inorganic material has properties consistent with these predictions, revealing details about the nature of quantum matter. See Letter p.559 There are only a handful of candidate quantum spin liquids—exotic states of matter that are ideal for the study of the fundamental nature of quantum matter—so experimental observations of quantum spin liquid behaviour are scarce. Jun Zhao and colleagues use inelastic neutron scattering to study a single crystal of YbMgGaO4, which has a perfect triangular lattice. They find a spin excitation continuum across a large region of the Brillouin zone that persists at near-zero temperatures, providing evidence for a quantum spin liquid state with a spinon Fermi surface. The authors suggest that YbMgGaO4 fits the criteria for a perfect spin-1/2 triangular lattice antiferromagnet, as originally proposed by Philip Anderson in 1973.
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