2014/07/15 by Hsin-Hua Lai, Hsiang-Hsuan Hung, Gregory A. Fiete · 5 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Condensed Matter Physics #Condensed matter physics #Hamiltonian (control theory) #Ising model #Lattice (music) #Mathematics #Monte Carlo method #Physics #Quantum #Quantum Monte Carlo #Quantum many-body systems #Quantum mechanics #Square lattice #Statistics #Topological Materials and Phenomena #Topological insulator #cond-mat.str-el
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.90.195120
published in Physical Review B 90(19) (American Physical Society) · 4.5 pages, 4 figures
arxiv created 2014/07/15 · openalex publication_date 2014/11/12 · arxiv updated 2014/11/19 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
We develop an analytical approach based on a combined perturbative and self-consistent mean-field treatment of interactions that is capable of capturing topological phase transitions beyond either method when used independently. As an illustration of the method, we study the effects of short-range interactions on the Z2 topological insulator phase, also known as the quantum spin Hall phase, in two generalized versions of the Kane-Mele model at half-filling on the honeycomb lattice. The results are in excellent agreement with quantum Monte Carlo calculations on the same model and cannot be reproduced by either a perturbative treatment or a self-consistent mean-field treatment of the interactions. Our analytical approach helps to clarify how the symmetries of the one-body terms of the Hamiltonian determine whether interactions tend to stabilize or destabilize a topological phase. Moreover, our method should be applicable to a wide class of models where topological transitions due to interactions are in principle possible but are not correctly predicted by either perturbative or self-consistent treatments.