Spontaneous Time-Reversal Symmetry Breaking for Spinless Fermions on a Triangular Lattice

O. Tieleman, O. Dutta, M. Lewenstein, and A. Eckardt
Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 096405 – Published 28 February 2013

Abstract

As a minimal fermionic model with kinetic frustration, we study a system of spinless fermions in the lowest band of a triangular lattice with nearest-neighbor repulsion. We find that the combination of interactions and kinetic frustration leads to spontaneous symmetry breaking in various ways. Time-reversal symmetry can be broken by two types of loop current patterns, a chiral one and one that breaks the translational lattice symmetry. Moreover, the translational symmetry can also be broken by a density wave forming a kagome pattern or by a Peierls-type trimerization characterized by enhanced correlations among the sites of certain triangular plaquettes (giving a plaquette-centered density wave). We map out the phase diagram as it results from leading-order Ginzburg-Landau mean-field theory. Several experimental realizations of the type of system under study are possible with ultracold atoms in optical lattices.

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  • Received 18 October 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.096405

© 2013 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

O. Tieleman1, O. Dutta1, M. Lewenstein1,2, and A. Eckardt1,3

  • 1ICFO-Institut de Ciències Fotòniques, Parc Mediterrani de la Tecnologia, E-08860 Castelldefels, Spain
  • 2ICREA-Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Lluis Companys 23, E-08010 Barcelona, Spain
  • 3Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme, Nöthnitzer Straße 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany

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Vol. 110, Iss. 9 — 1 March 2013

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