Noncoplanar magnetic ordering driven by itinerant electrons on the pyrochlore lattice

Abstract: Exchange interaction tends to favor collinear or coplanar magnetic orders in rotationally invariant spin systems. Indeed, such magnetic structures are usually selected by thermal or quantum fluctuations in highly frustrated magnets. Here we show that a complex noncoplanar magnetic order with a quadrupled unit cell is stabilized by itinerant electrons on the pyrochlore lattice. Specifically we consider the Kondo-lattice and Hubbard models at quarter filling. The electron Fermi 'surface' at this filling factor is topologically equivalent to three intersecting Fermi circles. Perfect nesting of the Fermi lines leads to magnetic ordering with multiple wavevectors and a definite handedness. The chiral order might persist without magnetic order in a chiral spin liquid at finite temperatures.