Variational identification of a fractional Chern insulator in an extended Bose-Hubbard model

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new variational wave-function approach to identify a fractional Chern insulator phase in an extended Bose-Hubbard model, revealing a topological phase that breaks time-reversal symmetry.

Contribution

The authors develop a two-parameter parton wave-function that accurately captures topological and symmetry-breaking phases, improving upon traditional methods.

Findings

Identification of a fractional Chern insulator phase with spontaneous time-reversal symmetry breaking.

Demonstration of the wave-function's effectiveness in resolving topological properties via Hall conductance.

Mapping of the phase diagram showing the fractional Chern insulator's stability between superfluid phases.

Abstract

We study the extended Bose-Hubbard model on the square lattice at half filling as a function of next-nearest neighbor hopping amplitude and interaction strength. To variationally map out the phase diagram of this model, we develop a two-parameter family of wave-functions based on the parton construction which can describe both topological and broken symmetry phases on equal footing. In addition, our wave-functions resolve long standing issues with more conventional short-range Jastrow wave-functions. Using this variational ansatz, we show that a spontaneous time-reversal symmetry breaking fractional Chern insulator is energetically favored over a critical region between two superfluid phases. In verifying the properties of these parton wave-functions we exemplify a more robust way to identify topology through the Hall conductance.