A parent Hubbard model for spin-1 Haldane chains
Gonçalo Catarina, Joaquín Fernández-Rossier
Abstract
The Haldane phase for antiferromagnetic spin-1 chains is a celebrated topological state of matter, featuring gapped excitations and fractional spin-1/2 edge states. Here we provide numerical evidence that this phase can be realized with a Hubbard model at half-filling, where each $s = 1$ spin is stored in a four-site fermionic structure. We find that the noninteracting limit of our proposed parent model describes a one-dimensional topological insulator, adiabatically connected to the Haldane phase. Our work suggests a route to build spin-1 networks using Hubbard model quantum simulators.