What is magnon?

Magnons are quasi-particles that arise from the collective behavior of magnetic moments in a material. They are essentially quantum-mechanical spin waves that propagate through a magnetic material, causing a disturbance in the magnetic field as they travel. These disturbances can be detected by various experimental techniques, such as neutron scattering, and are important in many areas of condensed matter physics, including magnetism, spintronics, and quantum computing. In particular, magnons are crucial for understanding the behavior of magnetic materials at low temperatures, where quantum effects dominate and the interactions between individual magnetic moments become especially important. Magnons can also interact with and be influenced by other quasi-particles, such as phonons (sound waves) and excitons (electron-hole pairs), leading to a rich and complex array of phenomena.