Single to Multiquasiparticle Excitations in the Itinerant Helical Magnet CeRhIn(5)

CeRhIn(5) is an itinerant magnet where the Ce(3+) spins order in a simple helical phase. We investigate the spin excitations and observe sharp spin waves parameterized by a nearest-neighbor exchange, J(RKKY)=0.88±0.05  meV. At higher energies, the spin fluctuations are heavily damped, where single-quasiparticle excitations are replaced by a momentum- and energy-broadened continuum constrained by kinematics of energy and momentum conservation. The delicate energy balance between localized and itinerant characters results in the breakdown of the single-quasiparticle picture in CeRhIn(5).