Broken Symmetry in Ideal Chern Bands

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Liu, Hui, Yang, Kang, Abouelkomsan, Ahmed, Liu, Zhao, Bergholtz, Emil J.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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_version_ 1866913875508592640
author Liu, Hui
Yang, Kang
Abouelkomsan, Ahmed
Liu, Zhao
Bergholtz, Emil J.
author_facet Liu, Hui
Yang, Kang
Abouelkomsan, Ahmed
Liu, Zhao
Bergholtz, Emil J.
contents Recent observations of the fractional anomalous quantum Hall effect in moiré materials have reignited the interest in fractional Chern insulators (FCIs). The chiral limit in which analytic Landau level-like single-particle states form an ``ideal" Chern band and local interactions lead to Laughlin-like FCIs at $1/3$ filling, has been very useful for understanding these systems by relating them to the lowest Landau level. We show, however, that, even in the idealized chiral limit, a fluctuating quantum geometry is associated with strongly broken symmetries and a phenomenology very different from that of Landau levels. In particular, particle-hole symmetry is strongly violated and e.g. at $2/3$ filling an emergent interaction driven Fermi liquid state with no Landau level counterpart is energetically favoured. In fact, even the exact Laughlin-like zero modes at $1/3$ filling have a non-uniform density tracking the underlying quantum geometry. Switching to a Coulomb interaction, the ideal Chern band with electron filling of $1/4$ features trivial charge density wave states. Moreover, applying a particle-hole transformation reveals that the ideal Chern band with hole filling of $3/4$ supports a quantum anomalous Hall crystal with quantized Hall conductance of $e^2/h$. These phenomena have no direct lowest Landau level counterpart.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_04303
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Broken Symmetry in Ideal Chern Bands
Liu, Hui
Yang, Kang
Abouelkomsan, Ahmed
Liu, Zhao
Bergholtz, Emil J.
Strongly Correlated Electrons
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Recent observations of the fractional anomalous quantum Hall effect in moiré materials have reignited the interest in fractional Chern insulators (FCIs). The chiral limit in which analytic Landau level-like single-particle states form an ``ideal" Chern band and local interactions lead to Laughlin-like FCIs at $1/3$ filling, has been very useful for understanding these systems by relating them to the lowest Landau level. We show, however, that, even in the idealized chiral limit, a fluctuating quantum geometry is associated with strongly broken symmetries and a phenomenology very different from that of Landau levels. In particular, particle-hole symmetry is strongly violated and e.g. at $2/3$ filling an emergent interaction driven Fermi liquid state with no Landau level counterpart is energetically favoured. In fact, even the exact Laughlin-like zero modes at $1/3$ filling have a non-uniform density tracking the underlying quantum geometry. Switching to a Coulomb interaction, the ideal Chern band with electron filling of $1/4$ features trivial charge density wave states. Moreover, applying a particle-hole transformation reveals that the ideal Chern band with hole filling of $3/4$ supports a quantum anomalous Hall crystal with quantized Hall conductance of $e^2/h$. These phenomena have no direct lowest Landau level counterpart.
title Broken Symmetry in Ideal Chern Bands
topic Strongly Correlated Electrons
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.04303