We theoretically study magnetic properties of two-component cold fermions in half-filled multilayer Lieb optical lattices, i.e., two, three, and several layers, using the dynamical mean-field theory. We clarify that the magnetic properties of this system become quite different depending on whether the number of layers is odd or even. In odd-number layers in an odd-number-layer system, finite magnetization emerges even with an infinitesimal interaction. This is a striking feature of the flat-band ferromagnetic state in multilayer systems as a consequence of the Lieb theorem. In contrast, in even-number layers, magnetization develops from zero on a finite interaction. These different magnetic behaviors are triggered by the flat bands in the local density of states and become identical in the limit of the infinite-layer (i.e., three-dimensional) system. We also address how interlayer hopping affects the magnetization process. Further, we point out that layer magnetization, which is a population imbalance between up and down atoms on a layer, can be employed to detect the emergence of the flat-band ferromagnetic state without addressing sublattice magnetization.
We investigate some thermodynamic and magnetic properties of the Hubbard model on two three-dimensional extensions of the Lieb lattice: the perovskite Lieb lattice (PLL) and the layered Lieb lattice (LLL). Using determinant quantum Monte Carlo (DQMC) simulations alongside Hartree-Fock and cluster mean-field theory approaches, we analyze how flat-band degeneracy, connectivity, and lattice anisotropy influence the emergence of magnetic order. Our results show that both geometries support finite-temperature magnetic transitions, namely, ferromagnetic (FM) on the PLL and antiferromagnetic (AFM) on the LLL. Further, we have established that the critical temperature
Tc, as a function of the uniform onsite coupling
U, displays a maximum, which is larger in the AFM case than in the FM one, despite the absence of flat bands in the LLL. We also provide numerical evidence to show that flat bands in the PLL rapidly generate magnetic moments, but a small interorbital coordination suppresses the increase of
Tc at large interaction strength
U/t. By contrast, the LLL benefits from higher connectivity, favoring magnetic order even in the absence of flat bands. The possibilities of anisotropic interlayer hoppings and inhomogeneous onsite interactions were separately explored. We have found that magnetism in the PLL is hardly affected by hopping anisotropy since the main driving mechanism is the preserved flat band; for the LLL, by contrast, spectral weight is removed from
d sites, which increases
Tc more significantly. At mean-field level, we have obtained that setting
U=0 on
p sites and $U={U}_{d}\ensuremath{\ne}0$ on
d sites leads to a quantum critical point at some
Ud; this behavior was not confirmed by our DQMC simulations.
The noninteracting electronic structures of tight-binding models on bipartite lattices with unequal numbers of sites in the two sublattices have a number of unique features, including the presence of spatially localized eigenstates and flat bands. When a uniform on-site Hubbard interaction
U is turned on, Lieb proved rigorously that at half-filling ($\ensuremath{\rho}=1$) the ground state has a nonzero spin. In this paper we consider a ``
CuO2 lattice'' (also known as ``Lieb lattice,'' or as a decorated square lattice), in which ``
d orbitals'' occupy the vertices of the squares, while ``
p orbitals'' lie halfway between two
d orbitals; both
d and
p orbitals can accommodate only up to two electrons. We use exact determinant quantum Monte Carlo (DQMC) simulations to quantify the nature of magnetic order through the behavior of correlation functions and sublattice magnetizations in the different orbitals as a function of
U and temperature; we have also calculated the projected density of states, and the compressibility. We study both the homogeneous (H) case,
Ud=Up, originally considered by Lieb, and the inhomogeneous (IH) case, ${U}_{d}\ensuremath{\ne}{U}_{p}$. For the H case at half-filling, we found that the global magnetization rises sharply at weak coupling, and then stabilizes towards the strong-coupling (Heisenberg) value, as a result of the interplay between the ferromagnetism of like sites and the antiferromagnetism between unlike sites; we verified that the system is an insulator for all
U. For the IH system at half-filling, we argue that the case ${U}_{p}\ensuremath{\ne}{U}_{d}$ falls under Lieb's theorem, provided they are positive definite, so we used DQMC to probe the cases
Up=0,Ud=U and
Up=U,Ud=0. We found that the different environments of
d and
p sites lead to a ferromagnetic insulator when
Ud=0; by contrast,
Up=0 leads to to a metal without any magnetic ordering. In addition, we have also established that at density $\ensuremath{\rho}=1/3$, strong antiferromagnetic correlations set in, caused by the presence of one fermion on each
d site.
We describe the enhanced magnetic transition temperatures
Tc of two-component fermions in three-dimensional layered Lieb lattices, which are created in cold-atom experiments. We determine the phase diagram at half filling using the dynamical mean-field theory. The dominant mechanism of enhanced
Tc gradually changes from the ($\ensuremath{\delta}$-functional) flat-band to the (logarithmic) Van Hove singularity as the interlayer hopping increases. We elucidate that the interaction induces an effective flat-band singularity from a dispersive flat (or narrow) band. We offer a general analytical framework for investigating the singularity effects, where a singularity is treated as one parameter in the density of states. This framework provides a unified description of the singularity-induced phase transitions, such as magnetism and superconductivity, where the weight of the singularity characterizes physical quantities. This treatment of the flat-band provides the transition temperature and magnetization as a universal form (i.e., including the Lambert function). We also elucidate a specific feature of the magnetic crossover in magnetization at finite temperatures.
We investigate the magnetic shell structure of repulsively interacting two-component Fermi gases trapped in a two-dimensional harmonic potential and loaded on the optical Lieb lattices. We employ the real-space dynamical mean-field theory (R-DMFT) to explicitly consider the trap potential in a self-consistent way. Computing the profiles of particle density and local magnetization across the lattice sites in the trap, we find that the incompressible core with ferrimagnetic ordering appears with the density plateau at the trap center, which is surrounded by the shell of the normal metallic phase. We examine the incompressibility of the core by adding more particles and creating the higher spin-population imbalance. While the core area expands from the outer shell with added particles and increased polarization, the excess particles are prohibited from going inside the core, and thus the density plateau is unchanged at the half-filling with the same magnetic ordering. In addition, we find that the feature of the phase separation differs with the sublattices, where the interstitial sites causing the flat band dispersion shows the signature of the abrupt transition in the density and magnetization at the boundary between the core and surrounding shells.
Kagome metals exhibit a rich interplay of topology, electronic correlations, and lattice dynamics. Recent discoveries of Kagome materials with a flat band near the Fermi level have revealed a variety of correlated electronic phases. However, elucidating their microscopic origin remains challenging, as realistic descriptions require accounting for multiple orbitals and competing interactions on an equal footing. To disentangle correlation effects from material-specific details and identify the essential physics of the flat-band regime, we study the single-orbital Kagome-Hubbard model at flat-band fillings using dynamical mean-field theory. We find strong signatures of flat-band ferromagnetism, consistent with exact and mean-field ground-state results. Moreover, we uncover an unconventional quasi-ordered phase in which a partially filled spin-polarized flat band pinned at the Fermi level gives rise to persistent local spin fluctuations down to zero temperature, in striking contrast to the classical behavior expected for a conventional ferromagnet. Our results demonstrate that these anomalous fluctuations are an intrinsic consequence of the flat-band degeneracy and establish a minimal framework for understanding correlation effects in flat-band Kagome systems.
We discuss the properties of ferromagnetic orders on the Lieb lattice and show that a symmetry protected quadratic-flat band crossing point will dramatically affect the magnetic ordering. In the presence of a weak on-site repulsive interaction, the ground state is a nematic ferromagnetic order with simultaneously broken time-reversal and rotational symmetries. When the interaction strength increases, the rotational symmetry will restore at a critical value, and the system enters a conventional ferromagnetic regime. The mean-field transition temperatures for both the nematic and conventional ferromagnetic phases are in the order of interaction. This observation suggests that these magnetic orders have the potential to be realized and detected in cold atomic systems within realistic experimental conditions.