2016/10/31 by Edgar Marcelino
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Condensed matter physics #Coulomb #Electron #Ferromagnetism #Hamiltonian (control theory) #Magnetic field #Mathematics #Mean field theory #Phase transition #Physics #Quantization (signal processing) #Quantum Hall effect #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum many-body systems #Quantum mechanics #Quantum phase transition #Topological Materials and Phenomena #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.95.195112
published as Phys. Rev. B 95, 195112 (2017) · 7 pages, 6 figures. Version 3: published version
openalex publication_date 2017/05/08 · arxiv created 2017/11/07 · arxiv updated 2017/11/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
This paper considers a model consisting of a kinetic term, Rashba spin-orbit coupling and short-range Coulomb interaction at zero temperature. The Coulomb interaction is decoupled by a mean-field approximation in the spin channel using field theory methods. The results feature a first-order phase transition for any finite value of the chemical potential and quantum criticality for vanishing chemical potential. The Hall conductivity is also computed using the Kubo formula in a mean-field effective Hamiltonian. In the limit of infinite mass the kinetic term vanishes and all the phase transitions are of second order; in this case the spontaneous symmetry-breaking mechanism adds a ferromagnetic metallic phase to the system and features a zero-temperature quantization of the Hall conductivity in the insulating one.