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Mott insulators without symmetry breaking.

Dung-Hai Lee¹, Jon Magne Leinaas

¹Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.

Physical Review Letters

|April 20, 2004

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Theoretical models reveal Mott insulating ground states at fractional occupations without symmetry breaking. These models are nonlocal in configuration space but local in phase space.

Area of Science:

Condensed matter physics
Quantum mechanics

Background:

Mott insulators are fundamental states of matter.
Fractional occupations typically break symmetry in electronic systems.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop theoretical models exhibiting Mott insulating states.
To investigate these states at fractional occupations without symmetry breaking.

Main Methods:

Development of theoretical models in one and two spatial dimensions.
Analysis of Hamiltonians that are nonlocal in configuration space.
Characterization of Hamiltonians that are local in phase space.

Main Results:

Demonstration of Mott insulating ground states.
Observation of these states at fractional electronic occupations.

Related Experiment Videos

Absence of symmetry breaking in the ground states.

Conclusions:

Novel theoretical models can host exotic quantum states.
Fractional occupations do not necessitate symmetry breaking for Mott insulation.
The nature of the Hamiltonian (nonlocal in configuration, local in phase space) is key.