Quantum phases of AB2 fermionic chains

Abstract

A fermionic chain is a one-dimensional system with fermions that interact locally and can jump between sites in the lattice, in particular an ABn chain type, where A and B are sites that exhibit a difference in energy level of Δ and site B is repeated n-times, such that the unit cell has n +1 sites. A limit case of this model, called the ionic Hubbard model (n = 1), has been widely studied due to its interesting physics and applications. In this paper, we study the ground state of an AB2 chain, which describes the material R4[Pt2(P2O5H2)4X] · nH2O. Specifically, we consider a filling with two electrons per unit cell, and using the density matrix renormalization group method we found that the system exhibits the band insulator and Mott correlated insulator phases, as well as an intermediate phase between them. For couplings of Δ = 2,10 and 20, we estimate the critical points that separate these phases through the structure factor and the energy gap in the sector of charge and spin, finding that the position of the critical point rises as a function of Δ.