Magnetic excitations in the normal and nematic phases of iron pnictides

In this paper, we theoretically study the behaviors of the magnetic excitations (MEs) in the normal and nematic phases of iron pnictides. The normal state MEs exhibit commensurability to diamond and square-like structure transition with the increase of energy. This structure transition persists in the spin and orbital scenarios of nematic phases, although the MEs show anisotropic behaviors due to the C ₄ symmetry breaking induced by the nematic orders. The MEs exhibit distinct energy evolution behaviors between the spin and orbital scenarios of nematicity. For the spin-nematic scenario, the anisotropy of the MEs persists up to the high energy region. In contrast, for the orbital-nematic scenario, it reduces dramatically in the low energy region and is negligible in the high energy region. These distinct behaviors of the MEs are attributed to the different origins between the spin and orbital scenarios of nematic orders.