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Bulletin of the American Physical Society

Topological phase transition in the Hofstadter-Hubbard model

Hsiang-Hsuan Hung, Lei Wang, Matthias Troyer

Published Mar 6, 2015• 0 citations
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Abstract

We study the interplay between topological and conventional long range order of attractive fermions in a time reversal symmetric Hofstadter lattice using quantum Monte Carlo simulations, focussing on the case of one-third flux quantum per plaquette. At half-filling, the system is unstable towards s-wave pairing and charge-density-wave order at infinitesimally small interactions. At one-third-filling, the noninteracting system is a topological insulator, and a nonzero critical interaction strength is needed to drive a transition from the quantum spin Hall insulator to a superfluid. We probe the topological signature of the phase transition by threading a magnetic flux through a cylinder and observe quantized topological charge pumping.

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We study the interplay between topological and conventional long range order of attractive fermions in a time reversal symmetric Hofstadter lattice using quantum Monte Carlo simulations, focussing on the case of one-third flux quantum per plaquette. At half-filling, the system is unstable towards s-wave pairing and charge-density-wave order at infinitesimally small interactions. At one-third-filling, the noninteracting system is a topological insulator, and a nonzero critical interaction strength is needed to drive a transition from the quantum spin Hall insulator to a superfluid. We probe the topological signature of the phase transition by threading a magnetic flux through a cylinder and observe quantized topological charge pumping.
We study the interplay between topological and conventional long-range order of attractive fermions in a time-reversal-symmetric Hofstadter lattice using quantum Monte Carlo simulations, focusing on the case of one-third flux quantum per plaquette. At half filling, the system is unstable towards sss-wave pairing and charge-density-wave order at infinitesimally small interactions. At one-third filling, the noninteracting system is a topological insulator, and a nonzero critical interaction strength is needed to drive a transition from the quantum spin Hall insulator to a superfluid. We probe the topological signature of the phase transition by threading a magnetic flux through a cylinder and observe quantized topological charge pumping.
Motivated by the recent progress in engineering artificial non-Abelian gauge fields for ultracold fermions in optical lattices, we investigate the time-reversal-invariant Hofstadter–Hubbard model. We include an additional staggered lattice potential and an artificial Rashba-type spin–orbit coupling term available in experiment. Without interactions, the system can be either a (semi)-metal, a normal or a topological insulator, and we present the non-Abelian generalization of the Hofstadter butterfly. Using a combination of real-space dynamical mean-field theory (RDMFT), analytical arguments, and Monte-Carlo simulations we study the effect of strong on-site interactions. We determine the interacting phase diagram, and discuss a scenario of an interaction-induced transition from a normal to a topological insulator. At half-filling and large interactions, the system is described by a quantum spin Hamiltonian, which exhibits exotic magnetic order due to the interplay of Rashba-type spin–orbit coupling and the artificial time-reversal-invariant magnetic field term. We determine the magnetic phase diagram: both for the itinerant model using RDMFT and for the corresponding spin model in the classical limit using Monte-Carlo simulations.
Motivated by the recent progress in engineering artificial non-Abelian gauge fields for ultracold fermions in optical lattices, we investigate the time-reversal-invariant Hofstadter–Hubbard model. We include an additional staggered lattice potential and an artificial Rashba-type spin–orbit coupling term available in experiment. Without interactions, the system can be either a (semi)-metal, a normal or a topological insulator, and we present the non-Abelian generalization of the Hofstadter butterfly. Using a combination of real-space dynamical mean-field theory (RDMFT), analytical arguments, and Monte-Carlo simulations we study the effect of strong on-site interactions. We determine the interacting phase diagram, and discuss a scenario of an interaction-induced transition from a normal to a topological insulator. At half-filling and large interactions, the system is described by a quantum spin Hamiltonian, which exhibits exotic magnetic order due to the interplay of Rashba-type spin–orbit coupling and the artificial time-reversal-invariant magnetic field term. We determine the magnetic phase diagram: both for the itinerant model using RDMFT and for the corresponding spin model in the classical limit using Monte-Carlo simulations.
Understanding how a parent insulating state shapes the superconductivity that emerges upon doping is a long-standing problem dating back to Anderson's resonating-valence-bond proposal. The triangular-lattice Hofstadter-Hubbard model with π/2π/2π/2 flux per plaquette offers an ideal setting: at half filling it hosts two distinct parent states---an integer quantum Hall insulator and a chiral spin liquid---separated by a topological phase transition. Using neural quantum states on tori of up to 432432432 sites, we present strong evidence that the transition is continuous, with a vanishing 2e2e2e charge gap and critical charge fluctuations. Upon doping, we find a topological superconductor on either side of the transition. While the pairing order parameter remains nearly unchanged across the transition, the superfluid stiffness is strongly enhanced near the critical point. The energy scale of the superconductor is therefore set not by which parent state is doped, but by proximity to the transition between them. Our results establish neural quantum states as a powerful tool for understanding the interplay between unconventional electronic correlations and superconductivity.
Motivated by recently reported magnetic-field-induced topological phases in ultracold atoms and correlated Moir\'e materials, we investigate topological phase transitions in a minimal model consisting of interacting spinless fermions described by the Hofstadter model with Coulomb interaction on a square lattice. For interacting lattice Hamiltonians in the presence of a commensurate magnetic flux it has been demonstrated that the quantized Hall conductivity is constrained by a Lieb-Schultz-Mattis (LSM) type theorem due to magnetic translation symmetry. In this work, we revisit the validity of the theorem for such models and establish that a topological phase transition from a topological to a trivial insulating phase can be realized but must be accompanied by spontaneous magnetic translation symmetry breaking caused by charge ordering of the spinless fermions. To support our findings, the topological phase diagram for varying interaction strength is mapped out numerically with exact diagonalization for different flux quantum ratios and band fillings using symmetry indicators. We discuss our results in the context of the LSM-type theorem.
We show here two models where changing topology does not necessarily close the bulk insulating charge gap as demanded in the standard noninteracting picture. From extensive determinantal and dynamical cluster quantum Monte Carlo simulations of the half-filled and quarter-filled Kane-Mele-Hubbard model, we show that, for sufficiently strong interactions at either half- or quarter-filling, a transition between topological and trivial insulators occurs without the closing of a charge gap. To shed light on this behavior, we illustrate that an exactly solvable model reveals that while the single-particle gap remains, the many-body gap does, in fact, close. These two gaps are the same in the noninteracting system but depart from each other as the interaction turns on. We purport that for interacting systems, the proper probe of topological phase transitions is the closing of the many-body rather than the single-particle gap.