Topological quantum phase transitions of attractive spinless fermions in a honeycomb lattice
Abstract
We investigate a spinless Fermi gas trapped in a honeycomb optical lattice with attractive nearest-neighbor interactions. At zero temperature, the mean-field theory predicts three quantum phase transitions, two being topological. At low interactions, the system is semi-metallic. Increasing the interaction further, the semi-metal destabilizes into a fully gapped superfluid. At larger interactions, a topological transition occurs and this superfluid phase becomes gapless, with Dirac-like dispersion relations. Finally, increasing again the interaction, a second topological transition occurs and the gapless superfluid is replaced by a different fully gapped superfluid phase. We analyze these different quantum phases as the temperature and the lattice filling are varied.
- Publication:
-
EPL (Europhysics Letters)
- Pub Date:
- February 2011
- DOI:
- 10.1209/0295-5075/93/37008
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1006.3179
- Bibcode:
- 2011EL.....9337008P
- Keywords:
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- Condensed Matter - Quantum Gases
- E-Print:
- 6 pages, 5 figures