Metal to Wigner-Mott insulator transition in two-leg ladders
- Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); OSTI
- Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Here we study theoretically the quantum phase transition from a metal to a Wigner-Mott insulator at fractional commensurate filling on a two-leg ladder. We show that a continuous transition out of a symmetry-preserving Luttinger liquid metal is possible where the onset of insulating behavior is accompanied by the breaking of the lattice translation symmetry. At fillings $$v$$=1/$$m$$ per spin per unit cell, we find that the spin degrees of freedom also acquire a gap at the Wigner-Mott transition for odd integer $$m$$. In contrast for even integer $$m$$, the spin sector remains gapless and the resulting insulator is a ladder analog of the two-dimensional spinon surface state. In both cases, a charge neutral spinless mode remains gapless across the Wigner-Mott transition. We discuss physical properties of these transitions and comment on insights obtained for thinking about continuous Wigner-Mott transitions in two-dimensional systems which are being studied in moire materials.
- Research Organization:
- Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0008739
- OSTI ID:
- 2419835
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. B, Journal Name: Physical Review. B Journal Issue: 23 Vol. 106; ISSN 2469-9950
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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