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arXiv:1708.03538 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Nature of continuous phase transitions in interacting topological insulators

Tian-Sheng Zeng, Wei Kang Zhu, Jian‐Xin Zhu, D. N. Sheng

Published Nov 8, 2017• 12 citations
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Abstract

We revisit the effects of the Hubbard repulsion on quantum spin Hall effects (QSHE) in two-dimensional quantum lattice models. We present both unbiased exact diagonalization and density-matrix renormalization group simulations with numerical evidence for a continuous quantum phase transition (CQPT) separating QSHE from the topologically trivial antiferromagnetic phase. Our numerical results suggest that the nature of CQPT exhibits distinct finite-size scaling behaviors, which may be consistent with either Ising or $XY$ universality classes for different time-reversal symmetric QSHE systems.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.96.195118

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We revisit the effects of the Hubbard repulsion on quantum spin Hall effects (QSHE) in two-dimensional quantum lattice models. We present both unbiased exact diagonalization and density-matrix renormalization group simulations with numerical evidence for a continuous quantum phase transition (CQPT) separating QSHE from the topologically trivial antiferromagnetic phase. Our numerical results suggest that the nature of CQPT exhibits distinct finite-size scaling behaviors, which may be consistent with either Ising or XYXYXY universality classes for different time-reversal symmetric QSHE systems.
We study the phase transitions of bosonic $\ensuremath{\nu}=1/2$ fractional quantum Hall (FQH) effect in different topological lattice models under the interplay of onsite periodic potential and Hubbard repulsion. Through exact diagonalization and density matrix renormalization group methods, we demonstrate that the many-body ground state undergoes a continuous phase transition between bosonic FQH liquid and a trivial (Mott) insulator induced by the periodic potential, characterized by the smooth crossover of energy and entanglement entropy. When the Hubbard repulsion decreases, we claim that this bosonic FQH liquid would turn into a superfluid state with a direct energy level crossing and a discontinuous leap of off-diagonal long-range order.
We consider extended Hubbard models with repulsive interactions on a honeycomb lattice, and the transitions from the semimetal to Mott insulating phases at half-filling. Because of the frustrated nature of the second-neighbor interactions, topological Mott phases displaying the quantum Hall and the quantum spin Hall effects are found for spinless and spin fermion models, respectively. The mean-field phase diagram is presented and the fluctuations are treated within the random phase approximation. Renormalization group analysis shows that these states can be favored over the topologically trivial Mott insulating states.
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We study the two-dimensional Kane-Mele-Hubbard model at half filling by means of quantum Monte Carlo simulations. We present a refined phase boundary for the quantum spin liquid. The topological insulator at finite Hubbard interaction strength is adiabatically connected to the groundstate of the Kane-Mele model. In the presence of spin-orbit coupling, magnetic order at large Hubbard UUU is restricted to the transverse direction. The transition from the topological band insulator to the antiferromagnetic Mott insulator is in the universality class of the three-dimensional XY model. The numerical data suggest that the spin liquid to topological insulator and spin liquid to Mott insulator transitions are both continuous.
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Static disorder in a noninteracting gas of electrons confined to two dimensions can drive a continuous quantum (Anderson) transition between a metallic and an insulating state when time-reversal symmetry is preserved but spin-rotation symmetry is broken. The critical exponent $\ensuremath{\nu}$ that characterizes the diverging localization length and the bulk multifractal scaling exponents that characterize the amplitudes of the critical wave functions at the metal-insulator transition do not depend on the topological nature of the insulating state, i.e., whether it is topologically trivial (ordinary insulator) or nontrivial (a Z2{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}Z2​ insulator supporting a quantum spin Hall effect). This is not true of the boundary multifractal scaling exponents, which we show (numerically) to depend on whether the insulating state is topologically trivial or not.