Topological phase transitions in frustrated magnets

Abstract

The role of topological excitations in frustrated Heisenberg antiferromagnets between two and three spatial dimensions is considered. In particular, the antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on a stacked triangular geometry with a finite number of layers is studied using Monte Carlo methods. A phase transition that is purely topological in nature occurs at a finite temperature for all film thicknesses. The results indicate that topological excitations are important for a complete understanding of the critical properties of the model between two and three dimensions.