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Evolution of Electron Spin Resonance through a Metallic Quantum Critical Phase Diagram

Marc Scheffler1,*, Jörg Sichelschmidt2,*, Conrad Clauss1, Mojtaba Javaheri Rahim1, Boris I. Kochelaev2,†, Cornelius Krellner2,3, Christoph Geibel2, Frank Steglich2,4, and Martin Dressel1

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †Deceased.
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 136506 – Published 25 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/y227-dk8f

Abstract

In the heavy-fermion metal YbRh2Si2, quantum criticality at a suppressed antiferromagnetic order is governed by the interplay of local magnetic moments and itinerant conduction electrons. We demonstrate how this can be investigated by a new experimental approach that enables the observation of electron spin resonance (ESR) across a broad range of frequencies and fields at very low temperatures. This allowed us to cover a large part of the phase diagram from the paramagnetic Fermi-liquid phase to the phase with antiferromagnetic order and including the quantum-critical regime. Both the ESR g factor and the linewidth present distinct behaviors in these three regimes, providing further insight into the physics across a quantum critical point. Notably, when cooling down at a field directly toward the quantum critical point, both g factor and linewidth continuously decrease. Furthermore, we observe a very good matching of the g-factor behavior upon field tuning and temperature tuning toward the quantum-critical point. We analyze and discuss the results in the context of present theories on ESR in strongly correlated electron systems.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 136506– Published 25 September, 2026
  • Received 6 March 2026
  • Revised 13 August 2026
  • Accepted 20 August 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by the Max Planck Society.

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