Alwyn Jose Raja

Frustrated magnets typically possess a large space of classical ground states. If this degeneracy is not protected by symmetry, thermal fluctuations may “select” certain states via order-by-disorder. In this article, we examine a precursor effect where all ground states are sampled, but with different weights. Geometry plays a key role in determining the weight distribution and its behavior. We demonstrate this with two examples—both clusters with four spins coupled by XY interactions.