Study of long-range orders of hard-core bosons coupled to cooperative normal modes in two-dimensional lattices

TL;DR

This study investigates long-range order phenomena, including supersolidity, in a 2D lattice of hard-core bosons coupled to normal modes, revealing phase transitions and supersolid phases through quantum Monte Carlo simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a duality transformation and phase diagram analysis for HCBs coupled to normal modes, highlighting supersolid phases near specific fillings.

Findings

First-order transition from superfluid to solid phases at specific fillings

Emergence of checkerboard and diagonal striped supersolids near half and one-third fillings

Explanation of observed stripe formations in La2-xSrxNiO4

Abstract

Understanding the microscopic mechanism of coexisting long-range orders (such as lattice supersolidity) in strongly correlated systems is a subject of immense interest. We study the possible manifestations of long-range orders, including lattice-supersolid phases with differently broken symmetry, in a two-dimensional square lattice system of hard-core bosons (HCBs) coupled to archetypal cooperative/coherent normal-mode distortions such as those in perovskites. At strong HCB-phonon coupling, using a duality transformation to map the strong-coupling problem to a weak-coupling one, we obtain an effective Hamiltonian involving nearest-neighbor, next-nearest-neighbor, and next-to-next-nearest-neighbor hoppings and repulsions. Using stochastic series expansion quantum Monte Carlo, we construct the phase diagram of the system. As coupling strength is increased, we find that the system undergoes a first-order quantum phase transition from a superfluid to a checkerboard solid at half filling and from a superfluid to a diagonal striped solid [with crystalline ordering wavevector $\vec{Q}=(2\pi/3,2\pi/3)$ or $(2\pi/3,4\pi/3)$] at one-third filling without showing any evidence of supersolidity. On tuning the system away from these commensurate fillings, checkerboard supersolid is generated near half filling whereas a rare diagonal striped supersolid is realized near one-third filling. Interestingly, there is an asymmetry in the extent of supersolidity about one-third filling. Within our framework, we also provide an explanation for the observed checkerboard and stripe formations in ${\rm La}_{2-x}{\rm Sr}_x{\rm NiO_4}$ at $x=1/2$ and $x=1/3$.