Aharonov-Bohm interference for a hole in a two-dimensional Ising antiferromagnet in a transverse magnetic field

Abstract

We show that a proper consideration of the contribution of Trugman loops leads to a fairly low effective mass for a hole moving in a square lattice Ising antiferromagnet, if the bare hopping and the exchange energy scales are comparable. This contradicts the general view that because of the absence of spin fluctuations, this effective mass must be extremely large. Moreover, in the presence of a transverse magnetic field, we show that the effective hopping integrals acquire an unusual dependence on the magnetic field, through Aharonov-Bohm interference, in addition to significant retardation effects. The effects of the Aharonov-Bohm interference on the cyclotron frequency (for small magnetic fields) and the Hofstadter butterfly (for large magnetic fields) are analyzed.