2026/08/01 by Jincheng An, Ajit C. Balram, Ganpathy Murthy
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.mes-hall
20 pages, 11 figures
arxiv created 2026/08/01 · arxiv updated 2026/08/04
We investigate the skyrmion excited states atop the SU(4) quantum Hall ferromagnetic ground state at filling factor ν=-1 in monolayer graphene. The competition among short-range anisotropic interactions, the Zeeman coupling, and sublattice symmetry-breaking potential gives rise to four distinct spin-valley-ordered ground-state phases. Combining effective field theory with the Hartree--Fock approximation, we develop a variational framework that incorporates both the long-range Coulomb interaction and the symmetry-breaking terms on an equal footing. Variational minimization determines the optimal skyrmion texture, including both its spatial radial profile and internal SU(4) spinor structure. We establish the phase diagram of skyrmion excitations, identify thirteen distinct skyrmion phases under different external-field conditions, and determine their spin-valley textures, energies, and characteristic sizes. The robustness of the results against different radial ansätze demonstrates the reliability of our variational approach. Our work provides a systematic framework for studying skyrmion excitations in multicomponent quantum Hall ferromagnets and can be naturally extended to more general SU(4) quantum Hall systems.