Besides the well-classified single-particle topological phases, the discovery of electron-electron interaction-induced many-body topological phases in realistic materials has inspired great research interest. In this work, based on first-principles, density matrix renormalization group, and exact diagonalization calculations, we investigate the long-range Coulomb interaction-driven topological phases in the experimentally synthesized one-dimensional (1D) graphene nanoribbon superlattice (GNRS). Based on entanglement spectra and edge spin excitations, the topological phase diagram is mapped out in the interaction parameter space, forming two distinctive topological Haldane insulator (THI) phases and one charge density wave phase. The first-principles-derived interaction parameters place 1D GNRS in one THI phase with edge spin-1/2 slightly moved away from the outermost lattice site, which is distinguishable from the conventional THI phase through scanning tunneling microscopy-based electron-spin resonance measurements. Our results demonstrate the formation of correlated topological phases in 1D GNRS that are accessible by current experimental techniques.
Besides the well-classified single-particle topological phases, the discovery of electron-electron interaction-induced many-body topological phases in realistic materials has inspired great research interest. In this work, based on first-principles, density matrix renormalization group, and exact diagonalization calculations, we investigate the long-range Coulomb interaction-driven topological phases in the experimentally synthesized one-dimensional (1D) graphene nanoribbon superlattice (GNRS). Based on entanglement spectra and edge spin excitations, the topological phase diagram is mapped out in the interaction parameter space, forming two distinctive topological Haldane insulator (THI) phases and one charge density wave phase. The first-principles-derived interaction parameters place 1D GNRS in one THI phase with edge spin-1/2 slightly moved away from the outermost lattice site, which is distinguishable from the conventional THI phase through scanning tunneling microscopy-based electron-spin resonance measurements. Our results demonstrate the formation of correlated topological phases in 1D GNRS that are accessible by current experimental techniques.
We investigate the ground-state properties of a recently proposed model for a topological Kondo insulator in one dimension (i.e., the p-wave Kondo-Heisenberg lattice model) by means of the density-matrix renormalization-group method. The nonstandard Kondo interaction in this model is different from the usual (i.e., local) Kondo interaction in that the localized spins couple to the ``p-wave'' spin density of conduction electrons, inducing a topologically nontrivial insulating ground state. Based on the analysis of the charge- and spin-excitation gaps, the string order parameter, and the spin profile in the ground state, we show that, at half filling and low energies, the system is in the Haldane phase and hosts topologically protected spin-1/2 end states. Beyond its intrinsic interest as a useful ``toy model'' to understand the effects of strong correlations on topological insulators, we show that the p-wave Kondo-Heisenberg model could be experimentally implemented in $p\text{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{band}$ optical lattices loaded with ultracold Fermi gases.
Magnetic nanographenes are emerging as versatile building blocks for artificial spin lattices, enabling the exploration of flagship one-dimensional quantum-magnetism models with unprecedented control. The spin-1 Heisenberg model, including bilinear and biquadratic exchange, was first realized using [3]-triangulenes, revealing the Haldane phase. More recently, Clar’s goblets enabled the spin-1/2 Heisenberg model with exchange alternation, uncovering additional topological phases. Here we show that spin-1 nanographenes can be used to explore bond-alternating chains both in the Haldane phase and beyond it, in a dimerized phase with emergent edge spin-1. We use density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) to analyze how biquadratic exchange, which is known to be large in spin-1 nanographenes, determines the phase transition boundary. Combining multiconfigurational and first-principles calculations, we identify two realistic candidates to realize these two different phases: the recently synthesized extended Clar’s goblet and a passivated [4]-triangulene. We demonstrate how to distinguish these phases experimentally using inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy, paving the way for their observation.
We investigate the two-leg Hubbard model with diagonal hopping to explore the interplay between geometrical frustration and strong electron-electron interactions. Using the Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG) method, we demonstrate the emergence of a topological Haldane phase, which results explicitly from the complementary effects of diagonal hopping-induced frustration and strong on-site Coulomb repulsion. The topological phase transition from a trivial insulator to the nontrivial Haldane phase is characterized by significant changes in magnetic properties, edge correlations, and the appearance of a nonzero string order parameter. Furthermore, we confirm the topological nature of this phase through a detailed analysis of the spin gap and entanglement spectrum, demonstrating clear signatures of symmetry-protected topological order.
Twisted bilayer graphene is an exciting platform for exploring correlated quantum phases, extremely tunable with respect to both the single-particle bands and the interaction profile of electrons. Here, we investigate the phase diagram of twisted bilayer graphene as described by an extended Hubbard model on the honeycomb lattice with two fermionic orbitals (valleys) per site. Besides the special extended cluster interaction Q, we incorporate the effect of gating through an on-site Hubbard-interaction U. Within quantum Monte Carlo, we find valence-bond solid, Nel-valley antiferromagnetic or charge-density wave phases. Further, we elucidate the competition of these phases by noticing that the cluster interaction induces an exotic constraint on the Hilbert space, which we dub the cluster rule, in analogy to the famous pyrochlore spin-ice rule. Formulating the perturbative Hamiltonian by projecting into the cluster-rule manifold, we perform exact diagonalization and construct the fixed-point states of the observed phases. Finally, we compute the local electron density patterns as signatures distinguishing these phases, which could be observed with scanning tunneling microscopy. Our paper capitalizes on the notion of cluster constraints in the extended Hubbard model of twisted bilayer graphene and suggests a scheme towards realization of several symmetry-breaking insulating phases in a twisted-bilayer graphene sheet.
We examine the magnetic correlations in quantum spin models that were derived recently as effective low-energy theories for electronic correlation effects on the edge states of graphene nanoribbons. For this purpose, we employ quantum Monte Carlo simulations to access the large-distance properties, accounting for quantum fluctuations beyond mean-field-theory approaches to edge magnetism. For certain chiral nanoribbons, antiferromagnetic interedge couplings were previously found to induce a gapped quantum disordered ground state of the effective spin model. We find that the extended nature of the intraedge couplings in the effective spin model for zigzag nanoribbons leads to a quantum phase transition at a large, finite value of the interedge coupling. This quantum critical point separates the quantum disordered region from a gapless phase of stable edge magnetism at weak intraedge coupling, which includes the ground states of spin-ladder models for wide zigzag nanoribbons. To study the quantum critical behavior, the effective spin model can be related to a model of two antiferromagnetically coupled Haldane-Shastry spin-half chains with long-ranged ferromagnetic intrachain couplings. The results for the critical exponents are compared also to several recent renormalization-group calculations for related long-ranged interacting quantum systems.
Exploring topological phases in interacting systems is a challenging task. We investigate many-body topological physics of interacting fermions in an extended Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model, which extends the two sublattices of the SSH model into four sublattices and thus is dubbed the SSH4 model, based on the density-matrix renormalization-group numerical method. The interaction-driven phase transition from the topological insulator phase to the charge density wave (CDW) phase can be identified by analyzing the variations of the entanglement spectrum, entanglement entropies, energy gaps, CDW order parameter, and fidelity. We map the global phase diagram of the many-body ground state, which contains nontrivial topological insulator, trivial insulator, and CDW phases, respectively. In contrast to the interacting SSH model, in which the phase transitions to the CDW phase are argued to be first-order phase transitions, the phase transitions between the CDW phase and topologically trivial or nontrivial phases are shown to be continuous phase transitions. Finally, we also show the phase diagram of the interacting spinful SSH4 model, where the attractive (repulsive) on-site spin interaction amplifies (suppresses) the CDW phase. The models analyzed here can be implemented with ultracold atoms on optical superlattices.