Berry phase polarization and orbital magnetization responses of insulators: Formulas for generalized polarizabilities and their application

Fuente: arXiv
Enregistré dans:
Détails bibliographiques
Auteur principal: Venderbos, J. W. F.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
Sujets:
Accès en ligne:
Tags: Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
_version_ 1866915690808606720
author Venderbos, J. W. F.
author_facet Venderbos, J. W. F.
contents Condensed matter physics is often concerned with determining the response of a solid to an external stimulus. This paper revisits and extends the microscopic formalism for calculating response coefficients -- here referred to as (generalized) polarizabilities -- in crystalline electronic insulators. The main focus is on the Berry phase polarization and orbital magnetization, for which we obtain general formulas describing the linear response to an arbitrary (but static and uniform) perturbation. The response of an arbitrary lattice-periodic observable (e.g. spin, layer pseudospin) to electric and magnetic fields is also examined, and serves as a basis for mircoscopically establishing Maxwell relations between conjugate generalized polarizabilities. We furthermore introduce and examine the notion of Berry curvature or Hall vector polarizability, i.e., the response of the Berry curvature to a general perturbation, and show how it relates to Berry phase polarization and orbital magnetization responses. For all polarizabilities considered, we obtain simplified formulas applicable to two- and four-band models, expressed directly in terms of the Hamiltonian and the perturbation. Three specific applications of these formulas are discussed: (i) a computation of the magnetoelectric polarizabilities of model antiferromagnets in one and two dimensions; (ii) a general proof of (quasi)topological signatures in the polarizabilities of Dirac fermions in two dimensions; (iii) a calculation of the strain-induced Berry curvature polarizability in an altermagnet.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_19380
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Berry phase polarization and orbital magnetization responses of insulators: Formulas for generalized polarizabilities and their application
Venderbos, J. W. F.
Other Condensed Matter
Condensed matter physics is often concerned with determining the response of a solid to an external stimulus. This paper revisits and extends the microscopic formalism for calculating response coefficients -- here referred to as (generalized) polarizabilities -- in crystalline electronic insulators. The main focus is on the Berry phase polarization and orbital magnetization, for which we obtain general formulas describing the linear response to an arbitrary (but static and uniform) perturbation. The response of an arbitrary lattice-periodic observable (e.g. spin, layer pseudospin) to electric and magnetic fields is also examined, and serves as a basis for mircoscopically establishing Maxwell relations between conjugate generalized polarizabilities. We furthermore introduce and examine the notion of Berry curvature or Hall vector polarizability, i.e., the response of the Berry curvature to a general perturbation, and show how it relates to Berry phase polarization and orbital magnetization responses. For all polarizabilities considered, we obtain simplified formulas applicable to two- and four-band models, expressed directly in terms of the Hamiltonian and the perturbation. Three specific applications of these formulas are discussed: (i) a computation of the magnetoelectric polarizabilities of model antiferromagnets in one and two dimensions; (ii) a general proof of (quasi)topological signatures in the polarizabilities of Dirac fermions in two dimensions; (iii) a calculation of the strain-induced Berry curvature polarizability in an altermagnet.
title Berry phase polarization and orbital magnetization responses of insulators: Formulas for generalized polarizabilities and their application
topic Other Condensed Matter
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.19380