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arXiv:1310.6064 · Modern Physics Letters B

THE CHARACTERIZATION OF TOPOLOGICAL PROPERTIES IN QUANTUM MONTE CARLO SIMULATIONS OF THE KANE–MELE–HUBBARD MODEL

Zi Yang Meng, Hsiang-Hsuan Hung, Thomas C. Lang

Published Nov 26, 2013• 37 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Topological insulators present a bulk gap, but allow for dissipationless spin transport along the edges. These exotic states are characterized by the Z2 topological invariant and are protected by time-reversal symmetry. The Kane–Mele model is one model to realize this topological class in two dimensions, also called the quantum spin Hall state. In this brief review article, we provide a pedagogical introduction to the influence of correlation effects in the quantum spin Hall states, with special focus on the half-filled Kane–Mele–Hubbard model, solved by means of unbiased determinant quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations. We explain the idea of identifying the topological insulator via π-flux insertion, the Z2 invariant and the associated behavior of the zero-frequency Green's function, as well as the spin Chern number in parameter-driven topological phase transitions. The examples considered are two descendants of the Kane–Mele–Hubbard model, the generalized and dimerized Kane–Mele–Hubbard model. From the Z2 index, spin Chern numbers and the Green's function behavior, one can observe that correlation effects induce shifts of the topological phase boundaries. Although the implementation of these topological quantities has been successfully employed in QMC simulations to describe the topological phase transition, we also point out their limitations as well as suggest possible future directions in using numerical methods to characterize topological properties of strongly correlated condensed matter systems.

DOI
10.1142/s0217984914300014

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Topological insulators present a bulk gap, but allow for dissipationless spin transport along the edges. These exotic states are characterized by the Z2 topological invariant and are protected by time-reversal symmetry. The Kane–Mele model is one model to realize this topological class in two dimensions, also called the quantum spin Hall state. In this brief review article, we provide a pedagogical introduction to the influence of correlation effects in the quantum spin Hall states, with special focus on the half-filled Kane–Mele–Hubbard model, solved by means of unbiased determinant quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations. We explain the idea of identifying the topological insulator via π-flux insertion, the Z2 invariant and the associated behavior of the zero-frequency Green's function, as well as the spin Chern number in parameter-driven topological phase transitions. The examples considered are two descendants of the Kane–Mele–Hubbard model, the generalized and dimerized Kane–Mele–Hubbard model. From the Z2 index, spin Chern numbers and the Green's function behavior, one can observe that correlation effects induce shifts of the topological phase boundaries. Although the implementation of these topological quantities has been successfully employed in QMC simulations to describe the topological phase transition, we also point out their limitations as well as suggest possible future directions in using numerical methods to characterize topological properties of strongly correlated condensed matter systems.
We theoretically study topological phase transitions in four generalized versions of the Kane-Mele-Hubbard model with up to $2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{18}^{2}$ sites. All models are free of the fermion-sign problem allowing numerically exact quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) calculations to be performed to extremely low temperatures. We numerically compute the Z2{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}Z2​ invariant and spin Chern number ${C}_{\ensuremath{\sigma}}$ directly from the zero-frequency single-particle Green's functions, and study the topological phase transitions driven by the tight-binding parameters at different on-site interaction strengths. The Z2{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}Z2​ invariant and spin Chern number, which are complementary to each another, characterize the topological phases and identify the critical points of topological phase transitions. Although the numerically determined phase boundaries are nearly identical for different system sizes, we find strong system-size dependence of the spin Chern number, where quantized values are only expected upon approaching the thermodynamic limit. For the Hubbard models we considered, the QMC results show that correlation effects lead to shifts in the phase boundaries relative to those in the noninteracting limit, without any spontaneously symmetry breaking. The interaction-induced shift is nonperturbative in the interactions and cannot be captured within a ``simple'' self-consistent calculation either, such as Hartree-Fock. Furthermore, our QMC calculations suggest that quantum fluctuations from interactions stabilize topological phases in systems where the one-body terms preserve the D3{D}_{3}D3​ symmetry of the lattice, and destabilize topological phases when the one-body terms break the D3{D}_{3}D3​ symmetry.
We study a generalized Kane-Mele-Hubbard model with third-neighbor hopping, an interacting two-dimensional model with a topological phase transition as a function of third-neighbor hopping, by means of the determinant projector quantum Monte Carlo method. This technique is essentially numerically exact on models without a fermion sign problem, such as the one we consider. We determine the interaction dependence of the Z2{Z}_{2}Z2​ topological insulator/trivial insulator phase boundary by calculating the Z2{Z}_{2}Z2​ invariants directly from the single-particle Green's function. The interactions push the phase boundary to larger values of third-neighbor hopping, thus, stabilizing the topological phase. The observation of boundary shifting entirely stems from quantum fluctuations. We also identify qualitative features of the single-particle Green's function which are computationally useful in numerical searches for topological phase transitions without the need to compute the full topological invariant.
We theoretically study topological phase transitions in two generalized versions of the Kane-Mele-Hubbard model on a finite portion of the honeycomb lattice with up to 2×1822\times 18^22×182 sites. Both models are free of the fermion-sign problem allowing numerically exact quantum Monte Carlo calculations to be performed in the low-temperature regime. We numerically compute the Z2Z_2Z2​ invariant and the spin-Chern number directly from the zero-frequency single-particle Greens function for different values of on-site interaction and tune tight-binding parameters to drive topological phase transitions. While phase boundaries are nearly identical for different system sizes, we find a rather strong system-size dependence of the spin Chern number, with the expected quantized value only slowly approached for the largest system sizes. Moreover, we find that quantum fluctuation effects from interactions can act both to stabilize and destabilize topological phases, depending on the details of the model.
The dimerized Kane-Mele model with/without strong interaction is studied using analytical methods. The boundary of the topological phase transition of the model without strong interaction is obtained. Our results show that the occurrence of the transition only depends on dimerized parameter [Formula: see text]. From the one-particle spectrum, we obtain the completed phase diagram including the quantum spin Hall state and the topologically trivial insulator. Then, using different mean field methods, we investigate the Mott transition and the magnetic transition of the strongly correlated dimerized Kane-Mele model. In the region between the two transitions, the topological Mott insulator with characteristics of Mott insulators and topological phases may be the most interesting phase. In this work, the effects of hopping anisotropy and Hubbard interaction U on the boundaries of the two transitions are observed in detail. The completed phase diagram of the dimerized Kane-Mele-Hubbard model is also obtained in this work. Quantum fluctuations have extremely important influences on a quantum system. However, investigations are under the framework of mean field treatment in this work and the effects of fluctuations in this model will be discussed in the future.
Distinguishing the nontrivial symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phase from the trivial insulator phase in the presence of electron-electron interaction is an urgent question to the study of topological insulators, due to the fact that most of the topological indices defined for free electron systems are very likely unsuitable for interacting cases. In this work, we demonstrate that the strange correlator is a sensitive diagnosis to detect SPT states in interacting systems. Employing large-scale quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations, we investigate the interaction-driven quantum phase transition in the Kane-Mele-Hubbard model. The transition from the quantum spin Hall insulator at weak interaction to an antiferromagnetic Mott insulator at strong interaction can be readily detected by the momentum space behavior of the strange correlator in single-particle, spin, and pairing sectors. The interaction effects on the symmetry-protected edge states in various sectors, i.e., the helical Luttinger liquid behavior, are well captured in the QMC measurements of strange correlators. Moreover, we demonstrate that the strange correlator is technically easier to implement in QMC and more robust in performance than other proposed numerical diagnoses for interacting topological states, as only static correlations are needed. The attempt in this work paves the way for using the strange correlator to study interaction-driven topological phase transitions in fermionic as well as bosonic systems.
The adiabatic insertion of a flux into a quantum spin Hall insulator gives rise to localized spin and charge fluxon states.We demonstrate that fluxes can be used in exact quantum Monte Carlo simulations to identify a correlated Z 2 topological insulator using the example of the Kane-Mele-Hubbard model.In the presence of repulsive interactions, a flux gives rise to a Kramers doublet of spin-fluxon states with a Curie-law signature in the magnetic susceptibility.Electronic correlations also provide a bosonic mode of magnetic excitons with tunable energy that act as exchange particles and mediate a dynamical interaction of adjustable range and strength between spin fluxons.fluxes can therefore be used to build models of interacting spins.This idea is applied to a three-spin ring and to one-dimensional spin chains.Because of the freedom to create almost arbitrary spin lattices, correlated topological insulators with fluxes represent a novel kind of quantum simulator, potentially useful for numerical simulations and experiments.