Symmetry-breaking Fermi surface deformations from central interactions in two dimensions

TL;DR

This paper develops a mean field theory for Pomeranchuk instability in 2D systems with central interactions, revealing a phase diagram where first-order quantum transitions often occur before symmetry-breaking deformations.

Contribution

It introduces a generic mean field framework for analyzing Pomeranchuk instabilities in two dimensions with central interactions, including phase diagram characterization.

Findings

First-order quantum phase transitions pre-empt Pomeranchuk instabilities in many parameter regimes.

The phase diagram maps the conditions for symmetry-breaking deformations versus first-order transitions.

The theory connects microscopic parameters to macroscopic phase behavior in 2D Fermi liquids.

Abstract

We present a mean field theory of the Pomeranchuk instability in two dimensions, starting from a generic central interaction potential described in terms of a few microscopic parameters. For a significant range of parameters, the instability is found to be pre-empted by a first-order quantum phase transition. We provide the ground state phase diagram in terms of our generic parameters.