No Arabic abstract
The tunable magnetism at graphene edges with lengths of up to 48 unit cells is analyzed by an exact diagonalization technique. For this we use a generalized interacting one-dimensional model which can be tuned continuously from a limit describing graphene zigzag edge states with a ferromagnetic phase, to a limit equivalent to a Hubbard chain, which does not allow ferromagnetism. This analysis sheds light onto the question why the edge states have a ferromagnetic ground state, while a usual one-dimensional metal does not. Essentially we find that there are two important features of edge states: (a) umklapp processes are completely forbidden for edge states; this allows a spin-polarized ground state. (b) the strong momentum dependence of the effective interaction vertex for edge states gives rise to a regime of partial spin-polarization and a second order phase transition between a standard paramagnetic Luttinger liquid and ferromagnetic Luttinger liquid.
We perform projective quantum Monte Carlo simulations of zigzag graphene nanoribbons within a realistic model with long-range Coulomb interactions. Increasing the relative strength of nonlocal interactions with respect to the on-site repulsion does not generate a phase transition but has a number of nontrivial effects. At the single-particle level we observe a marked enhancement of the Fermi velocity at the Dirac points. At the two-particle level, spin- and charge-density-wave fluctuations compete. As a consequence, the edge magnetic moment is reduced but the edge dispersion relation increases in the sense that the single-particle gap at momentum $q=pi/|{pmb a}_1|$ grows. We attribute this to nonlocal charge fluctuations which assist the spin fluctuations to generate the aforementioned gap. In contrast, the net result of the interaction-induced renormalization of different energy scales is a constant spin-wave velocity of the edge modes. However, since the particle-hole continuum is shifted to higher energies---due to the renormalization of the Fermi velocity---Landau damping is reduced. As a result, a roughly linear spin-wave-like mode at the edge spreads out through a larger part of the Brillouin zone.
We report on small-cluster exact-diagonalization calculations which prove the formation of electron-hole pairs (excitons) as prerequisite for spontaneous interlayer phase coherence in bilayer systems described by the extended Falicov-Kimball model. Evaluating the anomalous Greens function and momentum distribution function of the pairs, and thereby analyzing the dependence of the exciton binding energy, condensation amplitude, and coherence length on the Coulomb interaction strength, we demonstrate a crossover between a BCS-like electron-hole pairing transition and a Bose-Einstein condensation of tightly bound preformed excitons. We furthermore show that a mass imbalance between electrons and holes tends to suppress the condensation of excitons.
Using exact diagonalization, we study the projected Hamiltonian with Coulomb interaction in the 8 flat bands of first magic angle twisted bilayer graphene. Employing the U(4) (U(4)$times$U(4)) symmetries in the nonchiral (chiral) flat band limit, we reduced the Hilbert space to an extent which allows for study around $ u=pm 3,pm2,pm1$ fillings. In the first chiral limit $w_0/w_1=0$ where $w_0$ ($w_1$) is the $AA$ ($AB$) stacking hopping, we find that the ground-states at these fillings are extremely well-described by Slater determinants in a so-called Chern basis, and the exactly solvable charge $pm1$ excitations found in [arXiv:2009.14200] are the lowest charge excitations up to system sizes $8times8$ (for restricted Hilbert space) in the chiral-flat limit. We also find that the Flat Metric Condition (FMC) used in [arXiv:2009.11301,2009.11872,2009.12376,2009.13530,2009.14200] for obtaining a series of exact ground-states and excitations holds in a large parameter space. For $ u=-3$, the ground state is the spin and valley polarized Chern insulator with $ u_C=pm1$ at $w_0/w_1lesssim0.9$ (0.3) with (without) FMC. At $ u=-2$, we can only numerically access the valley polarized sector, and we find a spin ferromagnetic phase when $w_0/w_1gtrsim0.5t$ where $tin[0,1]$ is the factor of rescaling of the actual TBG bandwidth, and a spin singlet phase otherwise, confirming the perturbative calculation [arXiv:2009.13530]. The analytic FMC ground state is, however, predicted in the intervalley coherent sector which we cannot access [arXiv:2009.13530]. For $ u=-3$ with/without FMC, when $w_0/w_1$ is large, the finite-size gap $Delta$ to the neutral excitations vanishes, leading to phase transitions. Further analysis of the ground state momentum sectors at $ u=-3$ suggests a competition among (nematic) metal, momentum $M_M$ ($pi$) stripe and $K_M$-CDW orders at large $w_0/w_1$.
We study the magnetic properties of graphene edges and graphene/graphane interfaces under the influence of electrostatic gates. For this, an effective low-energy theory for the edge states, which is derived from the Hubbard model of the honeycomb lattice, is used. We first study the edge state model in a mean-field approximation for the Hubbard Hamiltonian and show that it reproduces the results of the extended 2D lattice theory. Quantum fluctuations around the mean-field theory of the effective one-dimensional model are treated by means of the bosonization technique in order to check the stability of the mean-field solution. We find that edge magnetism at graphene/graphane interfaces can be switched on and off by means of electrostatic gates. We describe a quantum phase transition between an ordinary and a ferromagnetic Luttinger liquid - a realization of itinerant one-dimensional ferromagnetism. This mechanism may provide means to experimentally discriminate between edge magnetism or disorder as the reason for a transport gap in very clean graphene nanoribbons.
A bosonic field theory is derived for the tunable edge magnetism at graphene zigzag edges. The derivation starts from an effective fermionic theory for the interacting graphene edge states, derived previously from a two-dimensional interacting tight-binding model for graphene. The essential feature of this effective model, which gives rise to the weak edge magnetism, is the momentum-dependent non-local electron-electron interaction. It is shown that this momentum-dependence may be treated by an extension of the bosonization technique, and leads to interactions of the bosonic fields. These interactions are reminiscent of a phi^4 field theory. Focussing onto the regime close to the quantum phase transition between the ferromagnetic and the paramagnetic Luttinger liquid, a semiclassical interpretation of the interacting bosonic theory is given. Furthermore, it is argued that the universal critical behavior at the quantum phase transition between the paramagnetic and the ferromagnetic Luttinger liquid is governed by a small number of terms in this theory, which are accessible by quantum Monte-Carlo methods.