Quantum spin Hall insulator on the honeycomb lattice induced by ferromagnetic exchange interaction

TL;DR

This paper investigates how ferromagnetic exchange interactions induce quantum spin Hall phases in a honeycomb lattice, using advanced renormalization group techniques to map out the phase diagram and analyze edge states.

Contribution

It introduces a novel combined approach of truncated unity functional renormalization group and mean-field approximation to study correlated electron phases.

Findings

Identification of quantum spin Hall, spin-Kekulé, and charge-density-wave phases.

Detailed characterization of the quantum spin Hall phase, including bulk gap and edge states.

Mapping of the phase diagram in the parameter space of $V_2$ and $J$.

Abstract

We study the many-body instabilities of correlated electrons on the half-filled honeycomb lattice with enhanced exchange coupling. The system is described by an extended Hubbard model including the next-nearest-neighbor Coulomb repulsion ($V_2$) and the nearest-neighbor exchange interaction ($J$). We use the truncated unity functional renormalization group approach to determine a schematic ground-state phase diagram with higher resolution in the parameter space of $V_2$ and $J$. In the absence of the on-site repulsion and presence of sizable next-nearest-neighbor repulsion and enhanced nearest-neighbor exchange interaction, we encounter the quantum spin Hall phase, the spin-Kekul\'{e} phase, and the three-sublattice and the incommensurate charge-density-wave phases. We propose a scheme for combining consistently the truncated unity functional renormalization group and the mean-field approximation, which is distinct from the conventional one that directly uses the renormalization-group results as an input for the mean-field calculation. This scheme is used to study in detail the quantum spin Hall phase, presenting some characteristics like the bulk gap, the Chern number and the helical edge states.