Optimally Localized Wannier Functions for 2D Chern Insulators

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Gunawardana, Thivan M., Turner, Ari M., Barnett, Ryan
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2023
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author Gunawardana, Thivan M.
Turner, Ari M.
Barnett, Ryan
author_facet Gunawardana, Thivan M.
Turner, Ari M.
Barnett, Ryan
contents The construction of optimally localized Wannier functions (and Wannier functions in general) for a Chern insulator has been considered to be impossible owing to the fact that the second moment of such functions is generally infinite. In this manuscript, we propose a solution to this problem in the case of a single band. We accomplish this by drawing an analogy between the minimization of the variance and the minimization of the electrostatic energy of a periodic array of point charges in a smooth neutralizing background. In doing so, we obtain a natural regularization of the diverging variance and this leads to an analytical solution to the minimization problem. We demonstrate our results numerically for a particular model system. Furthermore, we show how the optimally localized Wannier functions provide a natural way of evaluating the electric polarization for a Chern insulator.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2309_07242
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Optimally Localized Wannier Functions for 2D Chern Insulators
Gunawardana, Thivan M.
Turner, Ari M.
Barnett, Ryan
Materials Science
Strongly Correlated Electrons
The construction of optimally localized Wannier functions (and Wannier functions in general) for a Chern insulator has been considered to be impossible owing to the fact that the second moment of such functions is generally infinite. In this manuscript, we propose a solution to this problem in the case of a single band. We accomplish this by drawing an analogy between the minimization of the variance and the minimization of the electrostatic energy of a periodic array of point charges in a smooth neutralizing background. In doing so, we obtain a natural regularization of the diverging variance and this leads to an analytical solution to the minimization problem. We demonstrate our results numerically for a particular model system. Furthermore, we show how the optimally localized Wannier functions provide a natural way of evaluating the electric polarization for a Chern insulator.
title Optimally Localized Wannier Functions for 2D Chern Insulators
topic Materials Science
Strongly Correlated Electrons
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.07242