Quantum anomalous Hall domains in a quenched topological Mott insulator

Ulčakar, Lara (author), Lemut, Gal (author), Rejec, Tomaž (author), Mravlje, Jernej (author)

We study an interacting spinless quadratic band touching model that realizes a topological Mott insulating state. We quench the interaction from a value corresponding to the nematic insulator to that of the quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) ordered phase. We perform time-dependent Hartree-Fock simulations and show that after the quench the system realizes an excited Dirac semimetal state, which is, however, unstable and spontaneously evolves to a state with inhomogeneous nematic and QAH order parameters. The modulations form a stripe pattern that grows exponentially with time until the local Chern marker reaches unity. The alternating QAH order defines a domain structure with boundaries that host chiral sublattice currents.

• Language: English
• Keywords: condensed matter physics, quantum physics, quantum Hall effect, topological phase transitions, Mott insulators
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FMF - Faculty of Mathematics and Physics
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 195141-1-195141-11
• Numbering: Vol. 111, iss. 19
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-169273
• UDC: 538.9
• ISSN on article: 2469-9950
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.111.195141
• COBISS.SI-ID: 236717827
• Publication date in RUL: 21.05.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Physical review
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• ISSN: 2469-9950
• COBISS.SI-ID: 2997348

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: fizika kondenzirane snovi, kvantna fizika, kvantni Hallov efekt, topološki fazni prehodi, Mottovi izolatorji

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P1-0044-2022
• Name: Teorija trdnih snovi in statistična fizika

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: J1-2458-2020
• Name: Tri izboljšave na poti do realističnega opisa transporta močno koreliranih elektronov