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Lieb-Schultz-Mattis theorems in the presence of spin-orbit coupling: filling constraints for insulators in symmorphic and non-symmorphic crystals

Haruki Watanabe, Hoi Chun Po, Ashvin Vishwanath, Michael P. Zaletel

Published May 15, 2015• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

We determine conditions on the filling of electrons in a crystalline lattice to obtain the equivalent of a band insulator -- a gapped insulator with neither symmetry breaking nor fractionalized excitations. We allow for strong interactions, which precludes a free particle description. Previous approaches that extend the Lieb-Schultz-Mattis argument invoked spin conservation in an essential way, and cannot be applied to the physically interesting case of spin-orbit coupled systems. Here we introduce two approaches, the first an entanglement based scheme, while the second studies the system on an appropriate flat `Bieberbach' manifold to obtain the filling conditions for all 230 space groups. These approaches only assume time reversal rather than spin rotation invariance. The results depend crucially on whether the crystal symmetry is symmorphic. Our results clarify when one may infer the existence of an exotic ground state based on the absence of order, and we point out applications to experimentally realized materials. Extensions to new situations involving purely spin models are also mentioned.

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We determine conditions on the filling of electrons in a crystalline lattice to obtain the equivalent of a band insulator--a gapped insulator with neither symmetry breaking nor fractionalized excitations. We allow for strong interactions, which precludes a free particle description. Previous approaches that extend the Lieb-Schultz-Mattis argument invoked spin conservation in an essential way and cannot be applied to the physically interesting case of spin-orbit coupled systems. Here we introduce two approaches: The first one is an entanglement-based scheme, and the second one studies the system on an appropriate flat "Bieberbach" manifold to obtain the filling conditions for all 230 space groups. These approaches assume only time reversal rather than spin rotation invariance. The results depend crucially on whether the crystal symmetry is symmorphic. Our results clarify when one may infer the existence of an exotic ground state based on the absence of order, and we point out applications to experimentally realized materials. Extensions to new situations involving purely spin models are also mentioned.

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The Lieb–Schultz–Mattis theorem. A topological point of view

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arXiv:2202.06243•EMS Press eBooks•Jun 29, 2022•22 citations
We determine conditions on the filling of electrons in a crystalline lattice to obtain the equivalent of a band insulator -- a gapped insulator with neither symmetry breaking nor fractionalized excitations. We allow for strong interactions, which precludes a free particle description. Previous approaches that extend the Lieb-Schultz-Mattis argument invoked spin conservation in an essential way, and cannot be applied to the physically interesting case of spin-orbit coupled systems. Here we introduce two approaches, the first an entanglement based scheme, while the second studies the system on an appropriate flat `Bieberbach' manifold to obtain the filling conditions for all 230 space groups. These approaches only assume time reversal rather than spin rotation invariance. The results depend crucially on whether the crystal symmetry is symmorphic. Our results clarify when one may infer the existence of an exotic ground state based on the absence of order, and we point out applications to experimentally realized materials. Extensions to new situations involving purely spin models are also mentioned.
We determine conditions on the filling of electrons in a crystalline lattice to obtain the equivalent of a band insulator--a gapped insulator with neither symmetry breaking nor fractionalized excitations. We allow for strong interactions, which precludes a free particle description. Previous approaches that extend the Lieb-Schultz-Mattis argument invoked spin conservation in an essential way and cannot be applied to the physically interesting case of spin-orbit coupled systems. Here we introduce two approaches: The first one is an entanglement-based scheme, and the second one studies the system on an appropriate flat "Bieberbach" manifold to obtain the filling conditions for all 230 space groups. These approaches assume only time reversal rather than spin rotation invariance. The results depend crucially on whether the crystal symmetry is symmorphic. Our results clarify when one may infer the existence of an exotic ground state based on the absence of order, and we point out applications to experimentally realized materials. Extensions to new situations involving purely spin models are also mentioned.
The Lieb-Schultz-Mattis (LSM) theorem and its higher-dimensional extensions forbid the existence of a unique, symmetric, and gapped ground state at fractional fillings in quantum many-body systems with a conserved particle number (or spin angular momentum) and the conventional translation symmetry of Euclidean lattices. In this work, we propose a generalization of the LSM theorem to quantum many-body systems on hyperbolic lattices, i.e., regular tessellations of two-dimensional negatively curved space. By leveraging concepts from hyperbolic band theory in a many-body setting, we adapt Oshikawa's flux-threading argument to periodic hyperbolic lattices with a non-Euclidean (Fuchsian) translation symmetry and compute a lower-bound to the ground-state degeneracy as a function of filling and lattice geometry. We explore the consequences of LSM constraints for gapped phases of hyperbolic quantum matter and suggest frustrated spin models on hyperbolic analogs of the square and triangular lattices as promising platforms for realizing symmetric spin liquids in hyperbolic space.
Following recent developments in the classification of bosonic short-range entangled phases, we examine many-body quantum systems whose ground state fractionalization obeys the Lieb-Schultz-Mattis (LSM) theorem. We generalize the topological classification of such phases by LSM anomalies (arXiv:1907.08204) to take magnetic and non-symmorphic lattice effects into account, and provide direct computations of the LSM anomaly in specific examples. We show that the anomaly-free condition coincides with established filling constraints (arXiv:1705.09298, arXiv:1505.04193), and we also derived new ones on novel crystalline quantum systems.
We study quantum many-body systems in the presence of an exotic antiunitary translation or inversion symmetry involving time reversal. Based on a symmetry-twisting method and spectrum robustness, we propose that a half-integer spin chain that respects any of these two antiunitary crystalline symmetries in addition to the discrete Z_{2}×Z_{2} global spin-rotation symmetry must either be gapless or possess degenerate ground states. This explains the gaplessness of a class of chiral spin models not indicated by the Lieb-Schultz-Mattis theorem and its known extensions. Moreover, we present symmetry classes with minimal sets of generators that give nontrivial Lieb-Schultz-Mattis-type constraints, argued by the bulk-boundary correspondence in 2D symmetry-protected topological phases as well as lattice homotopy. Our results for detecting the ingappability of 1D quantum magnets from the interplay between spin-rotation symmetries and magnetic space groups are applicable to systems with a broader class of spin interactions, including Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya and triple-product interactions.
Nonperturbative constraints on many-body physics, such as the famous Lieb-Schultz-Mattis theorem, are valuable tools for studying strongly correlated systems. To this end, we present a number of nonperturbative results that constrain the low-energy physics of systems having conserved dipole moments. We find that for these systems, a unique translationally invariant gapped ground state is only possible if the polarization of the system is integer. Furthermore, if a lattice system also has U(1)\text{U}(1)U(1) subsystem charge conservation symmetry, a unique gapped ground state is only possible if the particle filling along these subsystems is integer. We also apply these methods to spin systems, and determine criteria for the existence of a different type of magnetic response plateau in the presence of a nonuniform magnetic field. Finally, we formulate a version of Luttinger's theorem for one-dimensional systems consisting of dipoles.
We review the Lieb–Schultz–Mattis theorem and its variants, which are no-go theorems that state that a quantum many-body system with certain conditions cannot have a locally-unique gapped ground state. We restrict ourselves to one-dimensional quantum spin systems and discuss both the generalized Lieb–Schultz–Mattis theorem for models with U(1) symmetry and the extended Lieb–Schultz–Mattis theorem for models with discrete symmetry. We also discuss the implication of the same arguments to systems on the infinite cylinder, both with the periodic boundary conditions and with the spiral boundary conditions. For models with U(1) symmetry, we here present a rearranged version of the original proof of Lieb, Schultz, and Mattis based on the twist operator. As the title suggests, we take a modern topological point of view and prove the generalized Lieb–Schultz–Mattis theorem by making use of a topological index (which coincides with the filling factor). By a topological index, we mean an index that characterizes a locally-unique gapped ground state and is invariant under continuous (or smooth) modification of the ground state. For models with discrete symmetry, we describe the basic idea of the most general proof based on the topological index introduced in the context of symmetry-protected topological phases. We start from background materials such as the classification of projective representations of the symmetry group. We also review the notion that we call a locally-unique gapped ground state of a quantum spin system on an infinite lattice and present basic theorems. This notion turns out to be natural and useful from the physicists’ point of view. We have tried to make the present chapter readable and almost self-contained. We only assume basic knowledge about quantum spin systems.