Order by Distortion and String Modes in Pyrochlore Antiferromagnets

We study the effects of magnetoelastic couplings on pyrochlore antiferromagnets. We employ Landau theory, extending an investigation begun by Yamashita and Ueda for the case of S  =  1, and classical analyses to argue that such couplings generate bond order via a spin-Peierls transition. This is followed by, or concurrent with, a transition into one of several possible low-temperature Néel phases, with most simply collinear, but also coplanar or mixed spin patterns. In a collinear Néel phase, a dispersionless stringlike magnon mode dominates the resulting excitation spectrum, providing a distinctive signature of the parent geometrically frustrated state. We comment on the experimental situation.