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arXiv:1412.6814 · Physical Review B

Fragility of symmetry-protected topological order on a Hubbard ladder

Sanjay Moudgalya, Frank Pollmann

Published Apr 17, 2015• 32 citations
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Abstract

Anfuso and Rosch [Phys. Rev. B 75, 144420 (2007)] showed that the ``topological'' Haldane phase in a fermionic spin-$1/2$ ladder can be continuously deformed into a ``trivial'' phase without explicitly breaking symmetries when local charge fluctuations are taken into account. Within the framework of symmetry-protected topological phases, we revisit the model and demonstrate how the Haldane phase can be adiabatically connected to a trivial phase due to charge fluctuations. Furthermore, we show that the Haldane phase remains stable as long as the system is symmetric under particular reflection symmetries.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.91.155128

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Anfuso and Rosch [Phys. Rev. B 75, 144420 (2007)] showed that the topological'' Haldane phase in a fermionic spin-$1/2$ ladder can be continuously deformed into a trivial'' phase without explicitly breaking symmetries when local charge fluctuations are taken into account. Within the framework of symmetry-protected topological phases, we revisit the model and demonstrate how the Haldane phase can be adiabatically connected to a trivial phase due to charge fluctuations. Furthermore, we show that the Haldane phase remains stable as long as the system is symmetric under particular reflection symmetries.
We systematically investigate the stability of the symmetry-protected topological (SPT) Haldane phase in spin- 1 2 Heisenberg and half-filled Hubbard ladders coupled by ferromagnetic Hund's interactions. Using the density-matrix renormalization group method, we analyze key signatures of the Haldane phase: long-range string order, finite spin gap, and characteristic entanglement spectrum degeneracies. In spin-only Heisenberg ladders, we find immediate onset and continuous strengthening of the Haldane phase with increasing Hund's coupling. In contrast, the inclusion of charge fluctuations in Hubbard ladders leads to a nontrivial stability regime, revealing a robust yet bounded region where SPT order persists despite significant charge fluctuations. We identify distinct boundaries separating a trivial insulating phase from the Haldane SPT phase, governed by both Coulomb repulsion and Hund's coupling. Our results highlight the subtle interplay of spin and charge degrees of freedom in correlated itinerant systems and establish essential criteria for observing Haldane physics experimentally in fermionic ladder materials.
Abstract Topology in quantum many-body systems has profoundly changed our understanding of quantum phases of matter. The model that has played an instrumental role in elucidating these effects is the antiferromagnetic spin-1 Haldane chain 1,2 . Its ground state is a disordered state, with symmetry-protected fourfold-degenerate edge states due to fractional spin excitations. In the bulk, it is characterized by vanishing two-point spin correlations, gapped excitations and a characteristic non-local order parameter 3,4 . More recently it has been understood that the Haldane chain forms a specific example of a more general classification scheme of symmetry-protected topological phases of matter, which is based on ideas connected to quantum information and entanglement 5–7 . Here, we realize a finite-temperature version of such a topological Haldane phase with Fermi–Hubbard ladders in an ultracold-atom quantum simulator. We directly reveal both edge and bulk properties of the system through the use of single-site and particle-resolved measurements, as well as non-local correlation functions. Continuously changing the Hubbard interaction strength of the system enables us to investigate the robustness of the phase to charge (density) fluctuations far from the regime of the Heisenberg model, using a novel correlator.
We discuss the characterization and stability of the Haldane phase in integer spin chains on the basis of simple, physical arguments. We find that an odd-SSS Haldane phase is a topologically nontrivial phase which is protected by any one of the following three global symmetries: (i) the dihedral group of $\ensuremath{\pi}$ rotations about the xxx, yyy, and zzz axes, (ii) time-reversal symmetry ${S}^{x,y,z}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{-}{S}^{x,y,z}$, and (iii) link inversion symmetry (reflection about a bond center), consistent with previous results [Phys. Rev. B 81, 064439 (2010)]. On the other hand, an even-SSS Haldane phase is not topologically protected (i.e., it is indistinct from a trivial, site-factorizable phase). We show some numerical evidence that supports these claims, using concrete examples.
The ground state of the S=1 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain belongs to the Haldane phase--a well-known example of the symmetry-protected topological phase. A staggered field applied to the S=1 antiferromagnetic chain breaks all the symmetries that protect the Haldane phase as a topological phase, reducing it to a trivial phase. That is, the Haldane phase is then connected adiabatically to an antiferromagnetic product state. Nevertheless, as long as the symmetry under site-centered inversion combined with a spin rotation is preserved, the phase is still distinct from another trivial phase. We demonstrate the existence of such distinct symmetry-protected trivial phases using a field-theoretical approach and numerical calculations. Furthermore, a general proof and a nonlocal order parameter are given in terms of a matrix-product state formulation.
Strong interactions can give rise to new fermionic symmetry-protected topological phases which have no analogs in free fermion systems. As an example, we have systematically studied a spinless fermion model with U(1)U(1)U(1) charge conservation and time-reversal symmetry on a three-leg ladder using density-matrix renormalization group. In the noninteracting limit, there are no topological phases. Turning on interactions, we found two gapped phases. One is trivial and is adiabatically connected to a band insulator, while another one is a nontrivial symmetry-protected topological phase resulting from strong interactions.