Rashba自旋轨道耦合下square-octagon晶格的拓扑相变

本文研究了各向同性square-octagon晶格在内禀自旋轨道耦合、Rashba自旋轨道耦合和交换场作用下的拓扑相变,同时引入陈数和自旋陈数对系统进行拓扑分类.系统在自旋轨道耦合和交换场的影响下会出现许多拓扑非平庸态,包括时间反演对称破缺的量子自旋霍尔态和量子反常霍尔态.特别的是,在时间反演对称破缺的量子自旋霍尔效应中,无能隙螺旋边缘态依然能够完好存在.调节交换场或者填充因子的大小会导致系统发生从时间反演对称破缺的量子自旋霍尔态到自旋过滤的量子反常霍尔态的拓扑相变.边缘态能谱和自旋谱的性质与陈数和自旋陈数的拓扑刻画完全一致.这些研究成果为自旋量子操控提供了一个有趣的途径.     

Kitaev模型与拓扑量子相变

文章通过在一种准一维路径上引入自旋算符的约当-维格纳（Jordan—Wigner）变换，证明了Kitaev自旋模型完全等价于一个不含任何非物理自由度的自由Majorana费米子模型。通过对偶变换，进一步证明了这个系统中存在的量子相变可用非定域的拓扑序参量来描述；并且，这些非定域的拓扑序参量在对偶空间变成为定域的朗道类型的序参量。文章作者的工作揭示了传统的量子相变和拓扑量子相变的内在关系，扩展了朗道二级相变理论的适用范围。     

Kitaev模型与拓扑量子相变

文章通过在一种准一维路径上引入自旋算符的约当-维格纳(Jordan-Wigner)变换,证明了Kitaev自旋模型完全等价于一个不含任何非物理自由度的自由Majorana费米子模型。通过对偶变换,进一步证明了这个系统中存在的量子相变可用非定域的拓扑序参量来描述;并且,这些非定域的拓扑序参量在对偶空间变成为定域的朗道类型的序参量。文章作者的工作揭示了传统的量子相变和拓扑量子相变的内在关系,扩展了朗道二级相变理论的适用范围。     

Space-time phase transitions in driven kinetically constrained lattice models

Kinetically constrained models (KCMs) have been widely used to study and understand the origin of glassy dynamics. These models show an ergodic-nonergodic first-order phase transition between phases of distinct dynamical “activity”. We introduce driven variants of two popular KCMs, the FA model and the (2)-TLG, as models for driven supercooled liquids. By classifying trajectories through their entropy production we prove that driven KCMs display an analogous first-order space-time transition between dynamical phases of finite and vanishing entropy production. We discuss how trajectories with rare values of entropy production can be realized as typical trajectories of a mapped system with modified forces.     

缀饰格子中时间反演对称破缺的量子自旋霍尔效应

<正>研究了缀饰格子中的量子自旋霍尔效应,模型中同时考虑了Rashba自旋轨道耦合和交换场的作用.缀饰格子具有简立方对称性,以零能平带和单狄拉克锥结构为主要特点.在缀饰格子中,不论是实现量子自旋霍尔效应还是量子反常霍尔效应,都需要一个不为零的内禀自旋轨道耦合作用来打开一个完全的体能隙,这与石墨烯等六角格子模型有着很大的不同.在交换场破坏了时间反演对称性的情况下,以自旋陈数为标志的量子自旋霍尔效应仍然能够存在,边缘态和极化率的相关结果也证明了这一结论.结果表明自旋陈数比z2拓扑数在表征量子自旋霍尔效应方面有着更广泛的适用范围,相应的结论为利用磁场控制量子自旋霍尔效应提出了一个理论模型和依据.     

Control of topological phase transitions in Dirac semimetal films by exchange fields

The exchange field effects on topological Dirac semimetal(DSM) films are discussed in this article. A topological phase transition can be controlled by tuning the exchange field together with the quantum confinement effects. What is more interesting is that the system can transit into the quantum anomalous Hall(QAH) state from the topologically trivial state(Z_2 = 0) or from the topologically nontrivial state(Z_2 = 1), depending on the thickness of the DSM films. This provides a useful mechanism to realize the QAH state from the DSM.     

Existence of phase transitions for quantum lattice systems

We prove that the following lattice systems:

1. anisotropic Heisenberg model,
2. Ising model with transverse magnetic field,
3. quantum lattice gas with hard cores extending over nearest neighbours,

exhibit phase transitions if the temperature is sufficiently low and the transverse (or kinetic) part of the interaction sufficiently small.     

Equilibration and dynamic phase transitions of a driven vortex lattice

We report on the observation of two types of current driven transitions in metastable vortex lattices. The metastable states, which are missed in usual slow transport measurements, are detected with a fast transport technique in the vortex lattice of undoped 2H-NbSe2. The transitions are seen by following the evolution of these states when driven by a current. At low currents we observe an equilibration transition from a metastable to a stable state, followed by a dynamic crystallization transition at high currents.     

Continuous topological phase transitions between clean quantum hall states

Continuous transitions between states and the same symmetry but different topological orders are studied. Clean quantum Hall (QH) liquids with neutral nonbosonic quasiparticles are shown to have such transitions under the right conditions. For clean bilayer (mmn) states, a continuous transition to other QH states (including non-Abelian states) can be driven by increasing interlayer repulsion/tunneling. The effective theories describing the critical points at some transitions are obtained.     

Floquet topological phase transitions and chiral edge states in a kagome lattice

The Floquet topological phases and chiral edge states in a kagome lattice under a circularly-polarized driving field are studied. In the off-resonant case, the system exhibits the similar character as the kagome lattice model with staggered magnetic fluxes, but the total band width is damped in oscillation. In the on-resonant case, the degeneracy splitting at the Γ point does not always result in a gap. The positions of the other two gaps are influenced by the flat band. With the field intensity increased, these two gaps undergo closing-then-reopening processes, accompanied with the changing of the winding numbers.     

Quantum phase transitions in mesoscopic Rashba rings

Novel quantum phases are found in the ground state of Rashba ring: the orbital magnetic phase (OMP), non-OMP, pseudo-OMP and quasi-OMP, which depend on the spin-orbit interaction (SOI) strength, electron number and ring size. We give the phase diagram and their quantum-phase-transition conditions.     

Boundary induced phase transitions in driven lattice gases with metastable states

We study the effect of metastability onto boundary induced phase transitions in a driven lattice gas. The phase diagram for open systems, parameterized by the input and output rates, consists of two regions corresponding to the free flow and jammed phase. Both have been entirely characterized. The microscopic states in the high density phase are shown to have an interesting striped structure, which undergoes a coarsening process and survives in the thermodynamic limit.     

Aspects of Floquet bands and topological phase transitions in a continuously driven superlattice

The recent creation of novel topological states of matter via periodic driving fields has attracted much attention. To contribute to the growing knowledge on this subject, we study the well-known Harper-Aubry-André model modified by a continuous time-periodic modulation and report on its topological properties along with several other interesting features. The Floquet bands are found to have non-zero Chern numbers which are generally different from those in the original static model. Topological phase transitions (discontinuous change of Chern numbers) take place as we tune the amplitude or period of the driving field. We demonstrate that the non-trivial Floquet band topology manifests via the quantized transport of Wannier states in the lattice space. For certain parameter choices, very flat yet topologically non-trivial Floquet bands emerge, a feature potentially useful for simulating the physics of strongly correlated systems. In some cases with an even number of Floquet bands, the spectrum features linearly dispersing Dirac cones which hold potential for the simulation of high energy physics or Klein tunnelling. Taking open boundary conditions, we observe anomalous counter-propagating chiral edge modes and degenerate zero modes. We end by discussing how these theoretical predictions may be verified experimentally.     

On the order of itinerant antiferromagnetic phase transitions and superconducting phase transitions in an exchange field

The coefficients of the second and fourth order terms in a Landau expansion of the free energy are evaluated for an itinerant antiferromagnetic transition. The choice of spatial dependence is found to play an important role. A first order transition is obtained for a range of values of the band structure parameters. However if values appropriate to Cr are used it is found that the contribution from the shift in the Fermi level is sufficiently large to give second order transitions even when magnetostrictive effects are included. In the mathematically similar problem of a superconductor in an exchange field it is found that the transition from normal to superconducting states is first order near the triple point with an upper and possibly a lower critical point where the transition changes to second order.     

Spin Hall current driven by quantum interferences in mesoscopic Rashba rings

We propose an all-electrical nanostructure where pure spin current is induced in the transverse voltage probes attached to a quantum-coherent ballistic one-dimensional ring when unpolarized charge current is injected through its longitudinal leads. Tuning of the Rashba spin-orbit coupling in a semiconductor heterostructure hosting the ring generates quasiperiodic oscillations of the predicted spin-Hall current due to spin-sensitive quantum-interference effects caused by the difference in the Aharonov-Casher phase accumulated by opposite spin states. Its amplitude is comparable to that of the spin-Hall current predicted for finite-size (simply connected) two-dimensional electron gases, while it gets reduced gradually in wide two-dimensional rings or due to spin-independent disorder.     

Anyon condensation and continuous topological phase transitions in non-Abelian fractional quantum Hall states

We find a series of possible continuous quantum phase transitions between fractional quantum Hall states at the same filling fraction in two-component quantum Hall systems. These can be driven by tuning the interlayer tunneling and/or interlayer repulsion. One side of the transition is the Halperin (p,p,p-3) Abelian two-component state, while the other side is the non-Abelian Z4 parafermion (Read-Rezayi) state. We predict that the transition is a continuous transition in the 3D Ising class. The critical point is described by a Z2 gauged Ginzburg-Landau theory. These results have implications for experiments on two-component systems at ν=2/3 and single-component systems at ν=8/3.     

Expansions and phase transitions for the ground state of quantum Ising lattice systems

Expansions for the ground state of some transverse Ising-like models are developed. These expansions are easily estimated by the solutions to some simple implicit equations. Short range or long range order obtains, depending on the coupling constants of the models.Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph. D. degree at the University of VirginiaWork partially supported by NSF-MCS 74-07313-A03     

Frustration and quantum phase transitions in an anisotropic antiferromagnet on a square lattice

We study the effect of frustration between nearest and next-nearest neighbors of the quantum S=1 anisotropic Heisenberg model on a square lattice using the bond operator technique. A single-site anisotropy term induces a quantum phase transition in the system. We calculate the effect of zero-temperature quantum fluctuations on the magnetization for the Néel and collinear antiferromagnetic phases.