Taking an electron-magnon duality shortcut from electron to magnon transport

Abstract

The quasiparticles in insulating magnets are the charge-neutral magnons, whose magnetic moments couple to electromagnetic fields. For collinear easy-axis magnets, this coupling can be mapped elegantly onto the scenario of charged particles in electromagnetic fields. From this mapping we obtain equations of motion for magnon wave packets equal to those of electron wave packets in metals. Thus, well-established electronic transport phenomena can be carried over to magnons: this duality shortcut facilitates the discussion of magnon transport. We identify the magnon versions of normal and anomalous Hall, Nernst, Ettingshausen, and Righi-Leduc effects. They are discussed for selected types of easy-axis magnets: ferromagnets, antiferromagnets, and ferrimagnets. Besides a magnon Wiedemann-Franz law and the magnon counterpart of the negative magnetoresistance of electrons in Weyl semimetals, we predict that certain low-symmetry ferrimagnets exhibit a nonlinear version of the anomalous magnon Hall-effect family.