Spin-Group Symmetry in Magnetic Materials with Negligible Spin-Orbit Coupling

Abstract

Symmetry formulated by group theory plays an essential role with respect to the laws of nature, from fundamental particles to condensed-matter systems. Here, by combining symmetry analysis and model calculations, we elucidate that the crystallographic symmetry groups of a vast number of magnetic materials with light elements, in which the neglect of relativistic spin-orbit coupling (SOC) is an appropriate approximation, are considerably larger than the conventional magnetic groups. Thus, a symmetry description that involves partially decoupled spin and spatial rotations, dubbed spin group, is required. We derive the classifications of spin point groups describing coplanar and collinear magnetic structures, and the irreducible corepresentations of spin space groups illustrating more energy degeneracies that are disallowed by magnetic groups. One consequence of the spin group is the new antiunitary symmetries that protect SOC-free Z2 topological phases with unprecedented surface-node structures. Our work not only manifests the physical reality of materials with weak SOC, but also sheds light on the understanding of all solids with and without SOC by a unified group theory.