Magnon edge states in the hardcore- Bose–Hubbard model

Abstract

Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulation has uncovered nonzero Berry curvature and bosonic edge states in the hardcore-Bose–Hubbard model on the gapped honeycomb lattice. The competition between the chemical potential and staggered onsite potential leads to an interesting quantum phase diagram comprising the superfluid phase, Mott insulator, and charge density wave insulator. In this paper, we present a semiclassical perspective of this system by mapping to a spin-1/2 quantum XY model. We give an explicit analytical origin of the quantum phase diagram, the Berry curvatures, and the edge states using semiclassical approximations. We find very good agreement between the semiclassical analyses and the QMC results. Our results show that the topological properties of the hardcore-Bose–Hubbard model are the same as those of magnon in the corresponding quantum spin system. Our results are applicable to systems of ultracold bosonic atoms trapped in honeycomb optical lattices.