Topological-Fermi-Liquid to Quantum-Hall-Liquid Transitions: pp-Band and dd-Band Fermions in a Magnetic Field

We find that in a multi-orbital system with intraorbital and interorbital hopping integrals, the Hall conductance exhibits various topological quantum phase transitions (QPTs) induced by on-site orbital polarization: integer quantum Hall (IQH) plateau transitions, and topological Fermi liquid to IQH transitions. Such topological QPTs are demonstrated in two systems: a $p$-band spinless fermionic system realizable with ultracold atoms in optical lattice, and a $d$-band spinful fermionic system closely related to giant orbital Hall effects in transition metals and their compounds.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Tuning Kinetic Magnetism of Strongly Correlated Electrons via Staggered Flux

We explore the kinetic magnetism of the infinite-$U$ repulsive Hubbard models at low hole densities on various lattices with nearest-neighbor hopping integrals modulated by a staggered magnetic flux $\pm\phi$. Tuning $\phi$ from 0 to $\pi$ makes the ground state (GS) change from a Nagaoka-type ferromagnetic state to a Haerter-Shastry-type antiferromagnetic state at a critical $\phi_c$, with both states being of kinetic origin. Intra-plaquette spin correlation, as well as the GS energy, signals such a quantum criticality. This tunable kinetic magnetism is generic, and appears in chains, ladders and two-dimensional lattices with squares or triangles as elementary constituents.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl

Extended staggered-flux phases in two-dimensional lattices

Based on the so called $t$-$\phi$ model in two-dimensional (2D) lattices, we investigate the stabilities of a class of extended staggered-flux (SF) phases (which are the extensions of the $\sqrt{2}\times\sqrt{2}$ SF phase to generalized spatial periods) against the Fermi-liquid phase. Surprisingly, when away from the nesting electron filling, some extended-SF phases take over the dominant SF phase (the $\sqrt{2}\times\sqrt{2}$ SF phase for the square lattice, a $1\times\sqrt{3}$ SF phase for the triangular one), compete with the Fermi-liquid phase in nontrivial patterns, and still occupy significant space in the phase diagram through the advantage in the total electronic kinetic energies. The results can be termed as the generalized Perierls orbital-antiferromagnetic instabilities of the Fermi-liquid phase in 2D lattice-electron models.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Magnetic Flux Tuning of Spin Chirality in Mott Insulators with Ring Exchanges

A manifestation of the many-body Aharonov-Bohm effect in the magnetic-flux-tuned Mott insulators with three-spin and four-spin ring exchanges, presents as an effective tool to manipulate the ground-state spin chirality, such as, tune the magnitude continuously, switch an abrupt jump, or even reverse its sign. Such a mechanism is demonstrated explicitly in both quasi-one-dimensional ladders and two-dimensional lattices with triangles as elementary plaquettes.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure