Devils staircases without particle-hole symmetry


Abstract in English

We present and analyze spin models with long-range interactions whose ground state features a so-called devils staircase and where plateaus of the staircase are accessed by varying two-body interactions. This is in contrast to the canonical devils staircase, for example occurring in the one-dimensional Ising model with long-range interactions, where typically a single-body chemical potential is varied to scan through the plateaus. These systems, moreover, typically feature a particle-hole symmetry which trivially connects the hole part of the staircase (filling fraction $fgeq1/2$) to its particle part ($fleq1/2$). Such symmetry is absent in our models and hence the particle sector and the hole sector can be separately controlled, resulting in exotic hybrid staircases.

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