Thermodynamics of correlated electrons in a magnetic field

TL;DR

This paper uses determinant quantum Monte Carlo to study the thermodynamics of the Hofstadter-Hubbard model, revealing how magnetic fields and interactions influence electron behavior in correlated systems relevant to Moiré materials.

Contribution

It provides the first large-scale, numerically exact simulations of the Hofstadter-Hubbard model under magnetic fields, analyzing various thermodynamic properties and band structure effects.

Findings

Magnetic Bloch bands and gaps are preserved with interactions.

Incompressible regions have improved fermion sign.

Magnetic field delocalizes electrons and diminishes Hubbard U effects.

Abstract

The Hofstadter-Hubbard model captures the physics of strongly correlated electrons in an applied magnetic field, which is relevant to many recent experiments on Moir\'e materials. Few large-scale, numerically exact simulations exists for this model. In this work, we simulate the Hubbard-Hofstadter model using the determinant quantum Monte Carlo (DQMC) algorithm. We report the field and Hubbard interaction strength dependence of charge compressibility, fermion sign, local moment, magnetic structure factor, and specific heat. The gross structure of magnetic Bloch bands and band gaps determined by the non-interacting Hofstadter spectrum is preserved in the presence of $U$. Incompressible regions of the phase diagram have improved fermion sign. At half filling and intermediate and larger couplings, a strong orbital magnetic field delocalizes electrons and reduces the effect of Hubbard $U$ on thermodynamic properties of the system.