No Arabic abstract
The competition between kinetic energy and Coulomb interactions in electronic systems can lead to complex many-body ground states with competing superconducting, charge density wave, and magnetic orders. Here we study the low temperature phases of a strongly interacting zinc-oxide-based high mobility two dimensional electron system that displays a tunable metal-insulator transition. Through a comprehensive analysis of the dependence of electronic transport on temperature, carrier density, in-plane and perpendicular magnetic fields, and voltage bias, we provide evidence for the existence of competing correlated metallic and insulating states with varying degrees of spin polarization. Our system features an unprecedented level of agreement with the state-of-the-art Quantum Monte Carlo phase diagram of the ideal jellium model, including a Wigner crystallization transition at a value of the interaction parameter $r_ssim 30$ and the absence of a pure Stoner transition. In-plane field dependence of transport reveals a new low temperature state with partial spin polarization separating the spin unpolarized metal and the Wigner crystal, which we examine against possible theoretical scenarios such as an anti-ferromagnetic crystal, Coulomb induced micro-emulsions, and disorder driven puddle formation.
We construct a class of exact ground states for correlated electrons on pentagon chains in the high density region and discuss their physical properties. In this procedure the Hamiltonian is first cast in a positive semidefinite form using composite operators as a linear combination of creation operators acting on the sites of finite blocks. In the same step, the interaction is also transformed to obtain terms which require for their minimum eigenvalue zero at least one electron on each site. The transformed Hamiltonian matches the original Hamiltonian through a nonlinear system of equations whose solutions place the deduced ground states in restricted regions of the parameter space. In the second step, nonlocal product wave functions in position space are constructed. They are proven to be unique ground states which describe non-saturated ferromagnetic and correlated half metallic states. These solutions emerge when the strength of the Hubbard interaction $U_i$ is site dependent inside the unit cell. In the deduced phases, the interactions tune the bare dispersive band structure such to develop an effective upper flat band. We show that this band flattening effect emerges for a broader class of chains and is not restricted to pentagon chains. For the characterization of the deduced solutions, uniqueness proofs, exact ground state expectation values for long-range hopping amplitudes and correlation functions are also calculated. The study of physical reasons which lead to the appearance of ferromagnetism has revealed a new mechanism for the emergence of an ordered phase, described here in details (because of lack of space see the continuation in the paper).
Flat band moire superlattices have recently emerged as unique platforms for investigating the interplay between strong electronic correlations, nontrivial band topology, and multiple isospin flavor symmetries. Twisted monolayer-bilayer graphene (tMBG) is an especially rich system owing to its low crystal symmetry and the tunability of its bandwidth and topology with an external electric field. Here, we find that orbital magnetism is abundant within the correlated phase diagram of tMBG, giving rise to the anomalous Hall effect (AHE) in correlated metallic states nearby most odd integer fillings of the flat conduction band, as well as correlated Chern insulator states stabilized in an external magnetic field. The behavior of the states at zero field appears to be inconsistent with simple spin and valley polarization for the specific range of twist angles we investigate, and instead may plausibly result from an intervalley coherent (IVC) state with an order parameter that breaks time reversal symmetry. The application of a magnetic field further tunes the competition between correlated states, in some cases driving first-order topological phase transitions. Our results underscore the rich interplay between closely competing correlated ground states in tMBG, with possible implications for probing exotic IVC ordering.
The quench dynamics of a system involving two competing orders is investigated using a Ginzburg-Landau theory with relaxational dynamics. We consider the scenario where a pump rapidly heats the system to a high temperature, after which the system cools down to its equilibrium temperature. We study the evolution of the order parameter amplitude and fluctuations in the resulting time dependent free energy landscape. Exponentially growing thermal fluctuations dominate the dynamics. The system typically evolves into the phase associated with the faster-relaxing order parameter, even if it is not the global free energy minimum. This theory offers a natural explanation for the widespread experimental observation that metastable states may be induced by laser induced collapse of a dominant equilibrium order parameter.
We study the quantum criticality of the phase transition between the Dirac semimetal and the excitonic insulator in two dimensions. Even though the system has a semimetallic ground state, there are observable effects of excitonic pairing at finite temperatures and/or finite energies, provided that the system is in proximity to the excitonic insulating transition. To determine the quantum critical behavior, we consider three potentially important interactions, including the Yukawa coupling between Dirac fermions and the excitonic order parameter fluctuation, the long-range Coulomb interaction, and the disorder scattering. We employ the renormalization group technique to study how these interactions affect quantum criticality and also how they influence each other. We first investigate the Yukawa coupling in the clean limit, and show that it gives rise to typical non-Fermi liquid behavior. Adding random scalar potential to the system always turns such a non-Fermi liquid into a compressible diffusive metal. In comparison, the non-Fermi liquid behavior is further enhanced by random vector potential, but is nearly unaffected by random mass. Incorporating the Coulomb interaction may change the results qualitatively. In particular, the non-Fermi liquid state is protected by the Coulomb interaction for weak random scalar potential, and it becomes a diffusive metal only when random scalar potential becomes sufficiently strong. When random vector potential or random mass coexists with Yukawa coupling and Coulomb interaction, the system is a stable non-Fermi liquid state, with fermion velocities flowing to constants in the former case and being singularly renormalized in the latter case. These quantum critical phenomena can be probed by measuring observable quantities.
A formalism is presented for treating strongly-correlated graphene quantum Hall states in terms of an SO(8) fermion dynamical symmetry that includes pairing as well as particle--hole generators. The graphene SO(8) algebra is isomorphic to an SO(8) algebra that has found broad application in nuclear physics, albeit with physically very different generators, and exhibits a strong formal similarity to SU(4) symmetries that have been proposed to describe high-temperature superconductors. The well-known SU(4) symmetry of quantum Hall ferromagnetism for single-layer graphene is recovered as one subgroup of SO(8), but the dynamical symmetry structure associated with the full set of SO(8) subgroup chains extends quantum Hall ferromagnetism and allows analytical many-body solutions for a rich set of collective states exhibiting spontaneously-broken symmetry that may be important for the low-energy physics of graphene in strong magnetic fields. The SO(8) symmetry permits a natural definition of generalized coherent states that correspond to symmetry-constrained Hartree--Fock--Bogoliubov solutions, or equivalently a microscopically-derived Ginzburg--Landau formalism, exhibiting the interplay between competing spontaneously broken symmetries in determining the ground state.