English

Spin Liquids and Pseudogap Metals in $SU(4)$ Hubbard Model in Moir\'e Superlattice

Strongly Correlated Electrons 2020-01-22 v3

Abstract

Motivated by the realization of spin-valley Hubbard on triangular moir\'e superlattice in ABC trilayer graphene aligned with hexagon boron nitride (hBN) and possibly also in twisted transition metal dichalcogenide homobilayers, we study possible Mott insulating phases and pseudogap metals based on symmetry constraint and parton mean field theories. First we show that Luttinger constraint allows two distinct symmetric and featureless Fermi liquids when there is an inter-valley Hund's term breaking SU(4)SU(4) spin rotation. Especially, there exists a symmetric and featureless "pseudogap metal" with small Fermi surfaces. Then we suggest to search for such an unconventional metallic state by doping the Mott insulator at νT=2\nu_T=2. For this purpose, we study the νT=2\nu_T=2 Mott insulator using SO(6)SO(6) Schwinger boson or Schwinger fermion parton. At the SU(4)SU(4) symmetric point, we find two symmetric Z2Z_2 spin liquids. With a large anti inter-valley Hund's term, a featureless Mott insulator is natural. Next we show that doping the featureless Mott insulator or a Z2Z_2 spin liquid can lead to featureless or orthogonal "pseudogap metal" with small Fermi surfaces proportional to the doping. Besides, we also provide one scenario for the evolution from "pseudogap metal" to the conventional Fermi liquid through an intermediate exotic "deconfined metal" phase. Last, we give brief comments on the possibility of U(1)U(1) spinon fermi surface state or Z4Z_4 spin liquid at νT=1\nu_T=1.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1906.10132,
  title  = {Spin Liquids and Pseudogap Metals in $SU(4)$ Hubbard Model in Moir\'e Superlattice},
  author = {Ya-Hui Zhang and Dan Mao},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1906.10132},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

13 pages, 4 figures + appendix