‘Metallic’ phase in a system of spin-orbit coupled bosons

J. H. Pixley, Stefan S. Natu, William S. Cole +2 more

Leo Radzihovsky, Vladyslav Kozii, Yehonatan Ruhman +1 more

We study the quantum phase transition between a paramagnetic and ferromagnetic metal in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling in one dimension. Using bosonization, we analyze the transition by means of renormalization group, controlled by an ɛ expansion around the upper critical dimension of two. We show that the presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling allows for a new nonlinear term in the bosonized action, which generically leads to a fluctuation driven first-order transition. We further demonstrate that the Euclidean action of this system maps onto a classical smectic-A–C phase transition in a magnetic field in two dimensions. We show that the smectic transition is second order and is controlled by a new critical point.

Qi Zhou, Xiaoling Cui

Vladyslav Kozii, Jonathan Ruhman, Liang Fu +1 more

We study the quantum phase transition between a paramagnetic and ferromagnetic metal in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling in one dimension. Using bosonization, we analyze the transition by means of renormalization group, controlled by an $\ensuremath{\varepsilon}$ expansion around the upper critical dimension of two. We show that the presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling allows for a new nonlinear term in the bosonized action, which generically leads to a fluctuation driven first-order transition. We further demonstrate that the Euclidean action of this system maps onto a classical smectic-A--C phase transition in a magnetic field in two dimensions. We show that the smectic transition is second order and is controlled by a new critical point.

Beibing Huang, Shaolong Wan

Effects of spin-orbit coupling (SOC) on metal-Mott insulator transition (MMIT) and spin exchange physics (SEP) of two-component Fermi gases in two-dimension half-filling square optical lattices are investigated. In the frame of Kotliar and Ruckenstein slave boson and the second order perturbation theory, the phase boundary of paramagnetic MMIT and spin exchange Hamiltonian are calculated. In addition by adopting two mean-field ansatzs including antiferromagnetic, ferromagnetic and spiral phases, we find that SOC can drive a quantum phase transition from antiferromagnet to spiral phase.

Ji-Guo Wang, Yu-Han Gan, Jin-Cui Zhao