Topological phases and phase transitions on the honeycomb lattice

We investigate possible phase transitions among the different topological insulators in a honeycomb lattice under the combined influence of spin-orbit couplings and staggered magnetic flux. We observe a series of topological phase transitions when tuning the flux amplitude, and find topologically nontrivial phases with high Chern number or spin-Chern number. Through tuning the exchange field, we also find a new quantum state which exhibits the electronic properties of both the quantum spin Hall state and quantum anomalous Hall state. The topological characterization based on the Chern number and the spin-Chern number are in good agreement with the edge-state picture of various topological phases.     

Dissipation-induced topological phase transition and periodic-driving-induced photonic topological state transfer in a small optomechanical lattice

We propose a scheme to investigate the topological phase transition and the topological state transfer based on the small optomechanical lattice under the realistic parameters regime.We find that the optomechanical lattice can be equivalent to a topologically nontrivial Su-Schrieffer Heeger(SSH)model via designing the effective optomechanical coupling.Especially,the optomechanical lattice experiences the phase transition between topologically nontrivial SSH phase and topologically trivial SSH phase by controlling the decay of the cavity field and the opto mechanical coupling.We stress that the to pological phase transition is mainly induced by the decay of the cavity field,which is counter-intuitive since the dissipation is usually detrimental to the system.Also,we investigate the photonic state transfer between the two cavity fields via the topologically protected edge channel based on the small optomechanical lattice.We find that the quantum st ate transfer assisted by the topological zero energy mode can be achieved via implying the external lasers with the periodical driving amplitudes into the cavity fields.Our scheme provides the fundamental and the insightful explanations towards the mapping of the photonic topological insulator based on the micro-nano optomechanical quantum optical platform.     

Chiral magnetic soliton lattice on a chiral helimagnet

Using Lorenz microscopy and small-angle electron diffraction, we directly present that the chiral magnetic soliton lattice (CSL) continuously evolves from a chiral helimagnetic structure in small magnetic fields in Cr(1/3)NbS2. An incommensurate CSL undergoes a phase transition to a commensurate ferromagnetic state at the critical field strength. The period of a CSL, which exerts an effective potential for itinerant spins, is tuned by simply changing the field strength. Chiral magnetic orders observed do not exhibit any structural dislocation, indicating their high stability and robustness in Cr(1/3)NbS2.     

Half-filled Kondo lattice on the honeycomb lattice

The unique linear density of state around the Dirac points for the honeycomb lattice brings much novel features in strongly correlated models. Here we study the ground-state phase diagram of the Kondo lattice model on the honeycomb lattice at half-filling by using an extended mean-field theory. By treating magnetic interaction and Kondo screening on an equal footing, it is found that besides a trivial discontinuous first-order quantum phase transition between well-defined Kondo insulator and antiferromagnetic insulating state, there can exist a wide coexistence region with both Kondo screening and antiferromagnetic orders in the intermediate coupling regime. In addition, the stability of Kondo insulator requires a minimum strength of the Kondo coupling. These features are attributed to the linear density of state, which are absent in the square lattice. Furthermore, fluctuation effect beyond the mean-field decoupling is analyzed and the corresponding antiferromagnetic spin-density-wave transition falls into the O(3) universal class. Comparatively, we also discuss the Kondo necklace and the Kane-Mele-Kondo (KMK) lattice models on the same lattice. Interestingly, it is found that the topological insulating state is unstable to the usual antiferromagnetic ordered states at half-filling for the KMK model. The present work may be helpful for further study on the interplay between conduction electrons and the densely localized spins on the honeycomb lattice.     

Quantum phase transition of cold atoms trapped in optical lattices

We review our recent theoretical advances in phase transition of cold atoms in optical lattices, such as triangular lattice, honeycomb lattice, and Kagomé lattice. By employing the new developed numerical methods called dynamical cluster approximation and cellular dynamical mean-field theory, the properties in different phases of cold atoms in optical lattices are studied, such as density of states, Fermi surface and double occupancy. On triangular lattice, a reentrant behavior of phase translation line between Fermi liquid state and pseudogap state is found due to the Kondo effect. We find the system undergoes a second order Mott transition from a metallic state into a Mott insulator state on honeycomb lattice and triangular Kagomé lattice. The stability of quantum spin Hall phase towards interaction on honeycomb lattice with spin-orbital coupling is systematically discussed. And we investigate the transition from quantum spin Hall insulator to normal insulator in Kagomé lattice which includes a nearest-neighbor intrinsic spin-orbit coupling and a trimerized Hamiltonian. In addition, we propose the experimental protocols to observe these phase transition of cold atoms in optical lattices.     

Ferromagnetism in the Hubbard model: instability of the Nagaoka state on the triangular,honeycomb and kagome lattices

In order to analyse the lattice dependence of ferromagnetism in the two-dimensional Hubbard model we investigate the instability of the fully polarised ferromagnetic ground state (Nagaoka state) on the triangular, honeycomb and kagome lattices. We mainly focus on the local instability, applying single spin flip variational wave functions which include majority spin correlation effects. The question of global instability and phase separation is addressed in the framework of Hartree-Fock theory. We find a strong tendency towards Nagaoka ferromagnetism on the non-bipartite lattices (triangular, kagome) for more than half filling. For the triangular lattice we find the Nagaoka state to be unstable above a critical density of n = 1.887 at U = ∞, thereby significantly improving former variational results. For the kagome lattice the region where ferromagnetism prevails in the phase diagram widely exceeds the flat band regime. Our results even allow the stability of the Nagaoka state in a small region below half filling. In the case of the bipartite honeycomb lattice several disconnected regions are left for a possible Nagaoka ground state.     

Topological Mott insulators

We consider extended Hubbard models with repulsive interactions on a honeycomb lattice, and the transitions from the semimetal to Mott insulating phases at half-filling. Because of the frustrated nature of the second-neighbor interactions, topological Mott phases displaying the quantum Hall and the quantum spin Hall effects are found for spinless and spin fermion models, respectively. The mean-field phase diagram is presented and the fluctuations are treated within the random phase approximation. Renormalization group analysis shows that these states can be favored over the topologically trivial Mott insulating states.     

Quantum Monte Carlo study of the dominating pairing symmetry in doped honeycomb lattice

We perform a systematic determinant quantum Monte Carlo(DQMC) study of the dominating pairing symmetry in a doped honeycomb lattice.The Hubbard model is simulated over a full range of filling levels for both weak and strong interactions.For weak couplings, the d-wave state dominates.The effective susceptibility as a function of filling shows a peak, and its position moves toward half filling as the temperature is increased, from which the optimal filling of the superconducting ground state is estimated.Although the sign problem becomes severe for strong couplings, the simulations access the lowest temperature at which the DQMC method generates reliable results.As the coupling is strengthened, the d-wave state is enhanced in the high-filling region.Our systematic DQMC results provide new insights into the superconducting pairing symmetry in the doped honeycomb lattice.     

Superconducting states of pure and doped graphene

We study the superconducting phases of the two-dimensional honeycomb lattice of graphene. We find two spin singlet pairing states; s wave and an exotic p+ip that is possible because of the special structure of the honeycomb lattice. At half filling, the p+ip phase is gapless and superconductivity is a hidden order. We discuss the possibility of a superconducting state in metal coated graphene.     

Fractional quantum-Hall liquid spontaneously generated by strongly correlated t(2g) electrons

For topologically nontrivial and very narrow bands, Coulomb repulsion between electrons has been predicted to give rise to a spontaneous fractional quantum-Hall (FQH) state in the absence of magnetic fields. Here we show that strongly correlated electrons in a t(2g)-orbital system on a triangular lattice self-organize into a spin-chiral magnetic ordering pattern that induces precisely the required topologically nontrivial and flat bands. This behavior is very robust and does not rely on fine-tuning. In order to go beyond mean field and to study the impact of longer-range interactions, we map the low-energy electronic states onto an effective one-band model. Exact diagonalization is then used to establish signatures of a spontaneous FQH state.     

Simulation and detection of the topological properties of a modulated Rice-Mele model in a one-dimensional circuit-QED lattice

Here, we propose a simple scheme to realize a one-dimensional (1D) modulated Rice-Mele model (RMM) and investigate its topological properties with a 1D circuit quantum electrodynamics (QED) lattice. The system can be mapped into a Chern insulator model by introducing a period parameter. Interestingly and surprisingly, we found that the circuit-QED lattice system always exhibits topologically nontrivial phases if both the nearest-neighbor hopping strength between two resonators and the qubit-assisted on-site potentials are alternately changed in the direction of the lattice. The numerical results show that the topological phases can be obtained by introducing an additional modulation parameter and both the edge state and topological invariant can be unambiguously seen with the existence of decay and disorders, even with few resonators in the lattice.     

Properties of the ground state in a spin-2 transverse Ising model with the presence of a crystal field

The properties of the ground state in the spin-2 transverse Ising model with the presence of a crystal field are studied by using the effective-field theory with correlations. The longitudinal and transverse magnetizations, the phase diagram and the internal energy in the ground state are given numerically for a honeycomb lattice (z=3).     

Dimers Belonging to Three Orientations on Plane Honeycomb Lattices

It is well known that there are three types of dimers belonging to the three different orientations in a honeycomb lattice, and in each type all dimers are mutually parallel. Based on a previous result, we can compute the partition function of the dimer problem of the plane (free boundary) honeycomb lattices with three different activities by using the number of its pure dimer coverings (perfect matchings). The explicit expression of the partition function and free energy per dimer for many types of plane honeycomb lattices with fixed shape of boundaries is obtained in this way (for a shape of plane honeycomb lattices, the procedure that the size goes to infinite, corresponds to a way that the honeycomb lattice goes to infinite). From these results, an interesting phenomena is observed. In the case of the regions of the plane honeycomb lattice has zero entropy per dimer—when its size goes to infinite—though in the thermodynamic limit, there is no freedom in placing a dimer at all, but if we distinguish three types of dimers with nonzero activities, then its free energy per dimer is nonzero. Furthermore, a sufficient condition for the plane honeycomb lattice with zero entropy per dimer (when the three activities are equal to 1) is obtained. Finally, the difference between the plane honeycomb lattices and the plane quadratic lattices is discussed and a related problem is proposed.     

A Realistic Model for Observing Spin-Balanced Fulde-Ferrell Superfluid in Honeycomb Lattices

The combination of spin-orbit coupling(SOC)and in-plane Zeeman Held breaks time-reversal and inversion symmetries of Fermi gases and becomes a popular way to produce single plane wave Fulde-Ferrell(FF)superfluid.However,atom loss and heating related to SOC have impeded the successful observation of FF state until now.In this work,we propose the realization of spin-balanced FF superfluid in a honeycomb lattice without SOC and the Zeeman field.A key ingredient of our scheme is generating complex hopping terms in original honeycomb lattices by periodical driving.In our model the ground state is always the FF state,thus the experimental observation has no need of fine tuning.The other advantages of our scheme are its simplicity and feasibility,and thus may open a new route for observing FF superfluids.     

The periodicity in translation of Ag (0 0 1) and (1 1 0) twist grain boundary

The energies of Ag (0 0 1) and (1 1 0) twist grain boundary (GB) in translation have been calculated with the modified analytical embedded atom method (MAEAM). The energy period corresponds exactly to the DSC lattice unit cell and the area of the energy period referred to the CSL unit cell is 1/Σ². The ‘energy grooves’ are parallel to the sides of the CSL or DSC lattice unit cell. The most preferable sliding direction is parallel to identical sides of the square CSL unit cell for (0 0 1) boundaries and to the short side of the rectangular CSL unit cell for (1 1 0) boundaries. From energy minimization, the stable configuration appears when two adjacent grains are translated relatively to the corners, centre or sides’ midpoint of the DSC lattice unit cell.     

Modulation of the photonic band structure topology of a honeycomb lattice in an atomic vapor

In an atomic vapor, a honeycomb lattice can be constructed by utilizing the three-beam interference method. In the method, the interference of the three beams splits the dressed energy level periodically, forming a periodic refractive index modulation with the honeycomb profile. The energy band topology of the honeycomb lattice can be modulated by frequency detunings, thereby affecting the appearance (and disappearance) of Dirac points and cones in the momentum space. This effect can be usefully exploited for the generation and manipulation of topological insulators.     

Macroscopic degeneracy and emergent frustration in a honeycomb lattice magnet

Using a hybrid method based on fermionic diagonalization and classical Monte Carlo techniques, we investigate the interplay between itinerant and localized spins, with competing double- and superexchange interactions, on a honeycomb lattice. For moderate superexchange, a geometrically frustrated triangular lattice of hexagons forms spontaneously. For slightly larger superexchange a dimerized ground state is stable that has macroscopic degeneracy. The presence of these states on a nonfrustrated honeycomb lattice highlights novel phenomena in this itinerant electron system: emergent geometrical frustration and degeneracy related to a symmetry intermediate between local and global.     

Magnetic properties of mixed Ising system with random field

A spin-1/2 and spin-3/2 mixed Ising system in a random field is studied by the use of effective-field theory with correlations. The phase diagrams and thermal behaviours of magnetizations are investigated numerically for the honeycomb lattice (z=3) and square lattice (z=4) respectively. The tricritical behaviours for both honeycomb and square lattices, as well as the reentrant behaviour for the square lattice are found.     

Thermodynamic and magnetic properties in two artificial frustrated lattices

With the Monte Carlo simulation, we investigate the thermodynamics and magnetic properties of the artificial frustrated square and honeycomb lattices. The results from the Ising-like dipolar model show that there occurs one magnetic order transition for the square lattice while the honeycomb lattice exhibits two magnetic order phase transitions. When the magnetic field is applied perpendicular to one of sublattices, a sharp field-independent peak in the specific heat curves appears at a very low temperature for both frustrated lattices due to the occurrence of a long-range ordered state induced by the magnetic field. For the square lattice, the coercive field slightly increases with the angle of field relative to the vertical axis. For both frustrated lattices, the magnetic reversal is achieved mostly via flipping a chain of the nearest neighbor spins.