Thermodynamic formulation of the spin magnetic octupole moment in bulk crystals (2504.21418v1)

Abstract: The discovery of unconventional antiferromagnets, such as altermagnets, has drawn significant attention to higher-rank magnetic multipoles. Despite the advances in research, a fundamental understanding of multipole moments, particularly octupole moments, remains limited due to the challenges of accurately treating the position operator in bulk crystals, which is integral to their definitions. In this paper, we overcome this problem by using a thermodynamic relation and derive a formula of the spin magnetic octupole moment (SMOM) that can be used in bulk crystals. The resulting formula is gauge invariant and satisfies St\v{r}eda formulas, which relate the SMOM to the spin magnetoelectric dipole-quadrupole susceptibilities. Furthermore, we apply this formula to several models and examine the fundamental properties of the SMOM. One particularly important property is that the SMOM of $d$-wave altermagnets is dominated by nonrelativistic SMOMs regardless of spin-orbit coupling. Moreover, these nonrelativistic SMOMs exhibit a N\'{e}el order dependence that is predicted by the Landau theory of $d$-wave altermagnetism [Phys. Rev. Lett. $\textbf{132}$, 176702 (2024)].