Topological quantum phase transitions of attractive spinless fermions in a honeycomb lattice

, and

Published 17 February 2011 Europhysics Letters Association
, , Citation D. Poletti et al 2011 EPL 93 37008 DOI 10.1209/0295-5075/93/37008

0295-5075/93/3/37008

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.

Export citation and abstract BibTeX RIS

10.1209/0295-5075/93/37008