Competing magnetic orders and anisotropic transport in quantum critical Sr₃Ru₂O₇

We investigated Sr₃Ru₂O₇, the classic example of a quantum critical metal known to show a metamagnetic quantum phase transition as well as electronic nematicity, through first-principles calculations. The density functional calculations predict a ferromagnetic ground state in contrast to its experimentally observed paramagnetic character. This raises the question whether there exists competing magnetic orders that suppresses its ferromagnetism and if so, then what are those? We performed a thorough search to identify such low energy antiferromagnetically ordered metastable states. We indeed obtain such an (almost) doubly degenerate state with a striped order and calculated its associated transport properties within Boltzmann transport theory. Our results indicate significant transport anisotropy which have been discussed in context of strong spin fluctuations present in this material.