We study the effects of electron correlations on the topological phase transition in the Bernevig-Hughes-Zhang model using the variational cluster approach where the short-range spatial correlations are taken into account exactly. We calculate the sp
in Chern number and local magnetic moment to show that the topologically nontrivial antiferromagnetic order exists and that the magnetic transition is of the second order. We furthermore demonstrate that under the spin-quantized condition the topological phase transition is caused by the closing of the bulk band gap.
