α-RuI3: A new quantum spin liquid on a honeycomb lattice?

α-RuI3 is adopt a honeycomb structure and is isostructural to α-RuCl3, a compound which has attracted enormous interest as a model system described by the Heisenberg-Kitaev model. The iodide is, unlike the chloride, metallic and (again unlike the chloride) exhibits no magnetic ordering down to 1.8 K. We previously showed that muons were well suited to studying α-RuCl3. Our proposed experiment would use milliKelvin temperatures to set a new limit on the extent to which α-RuI3 behaves as a quantum spin liquid.