arXiv subjects

Shi-Zeng Lin

Publications and source records attributed to Shi-Zeng Lin.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Interlayer Exciton Condensate Stiffness Is Non-Monotonic in Quantum Metric

Identifying the origin of the superfluid stiffness of electron-electron and electron-hole pair condensates is an important issue in flat-band physics. Here, we study the stiffness of bilayer exciton condensates using exact diagonalization and realistic Coulomb interactions across a wide variety of flat Chern band systems, including Landau levels, mixed Landau levels, and moir\'e bands. We find that stiffness is non-monotonic in the trace of the quantum metric and that it develops peaks when the band wavefunctions are engineered to be similar to those of Landau levels. The stiffness predicted by mean-field theory agrees quantitatively with exact diagonalization in these optimal cases, but systematically overestimates it otherwise. Flat bands with identical quantum geometry tensors can exhibit substantial differences in stiffness. The stiffness of condensates formed between moir\'e flat bands, which typically have strong variations in Berry curvature and quantum metric across their Brillouin zones, tends to be larger when the bands have non-zero Chern numbers and can be larger than that of Landau levels. Our results reveal a behavior that is richer than that suggested by simple geometric bounds and provide new guiding principles for the design of robust flat-band condensates with large superfluid stiffness.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2026

Geometry contribution to sound attenuation in double-Weyl semimetals

The axial coupling of strain to the nodes of the simple Weyl semimetals leads to anomalous contributions to sound attenuation in such materials. However, in double Weyl semimetals, there is no such axial coupling. Strain instead couples as a symmetry-breaking director field that deforms the Fermi surface around each Weyl node. In this work, we show that absence of axial coupling in double Weyl semimetals implies a very different mechanism of relaxation due to sound. The deformed geometry of the Fermi surface is the only source of sound attenuation under these conditions. Thus, we identify a geometric contribution to sound attenuation in double Weyl semimetals that is entirely absent in simple Weyl semimetals.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2026

Quantum Geometric Quadrupole of Cooper Pairs

The size of Cooper pairs defines a fundamental length scale of superconductivity, conventionally set by band dispersion and the superconducting gap. This picture breaks down in flat bands, where quenched dispersion makes quantum geometry essential. Here we develop a general framework based on the Cooper pair quadrupole moment, whose trace gives the pair size. The framework holds for both dispersive and flat-band cases, and provides a unified description of the geometric origin of this length scale. In particular, when time-reversal symmetry is broken, Berry curvature enters through the phase structure of the pair wavefunction and gives an essential contribution absent from previous quantum-metric theories. Together, Berry curvature and quantum metric impose a geometric lower bound on the pair size. Applying this framework to rhombohedral graphene, we find that the Berry-curvature-induced contribution can dominate and yields pair sizes comparable to experimentally inferred coherence lengths. These results identify Berry curvature as a central geometric ingredient controlling the microscopic length scale of superconductivity.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2026

Chiral skyrmionic superconductivity from doping a Chern Ferromagnet

We show that chiral superconductivity can be stabilized by hole doping a Chern ferromagnet. Performing exact diagonalization and density-matrix-renormalization-group calculations on the repulsive Kane-Mele-Hubbard model at hole doping relative to filling $\nu=1$ electron per unit cell, we find that a Cooper pair formed by a magnon (spin-flip excitation) bound to two holes is stabilized at sufficiently strong interactions and sufficiently large Ising spin-orbit coupling (SOC). This Cooper pair exhibits both finite spin chirality -- signaling a noncoplanar skyrmionic spin texture -- and chiral $f$-wave symmetry. The pairing and spin chirality are set by the Chern number/polarization of the parent Chern ferromagnet. We further find that interactions between skyrmion Cooper pairs evolve from repulsive to attractive as the Ising SOC increases, revealing an intermediate-SOC region where chiral superconductivity can emerge from the condensation of hole-skyrmion Cooper pairs. Our findings provide a novel microscopic mechanism for chiral superconductivity and may be relevant for the recent observation of superconductivity in the MoTe$_2$ moir\'e superlattice.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2026

Direct imaging of a Berry curvature nematic state in a spin-compensated magnet

Density waves conventionally describe the periodic modulation of charge or spin, yet the spatial modulation of electronic geometry has remained elusive. Here, we report subtle micrometer-scale spatial modulations of the magneto-optical Kerr signal in the noncollinear antiferromagnet Mn3NiN with compensated spins, consistent with a magnetic-field-induced Berry curvature density wave . These Berry curvature modulations exhibit orientations unpinned from the crystal lattice, forming a nematic state that spontaneously breaks rotational symmetry. We attribute this spatial instability to field-induced spatial variations of the spin texture driven by competing magnetic interactions. This discovery unveils a new class of collective order in spin-compensated magnets mediated by the geometric phase of the wavefunction itself. Its wavelength is controlled by chemical doping and its amplitude by magnetic field, providing concrete tuning knobs for antiferromagnetic and altermagnetic spintronics.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2026

Magnetization Plateaus in the Spin-Orbit Coupled Bilayer Triangular Lattice Antiferromagnet Rb2Co2(SeO3)3

Geometric frustration among competing spin exchanges can give rise to novel quantum phases by enhancing fluctuations that drive magnetic systems beyond the classical regime. We investigate the frustrated array of strongly correlated spin dimers in the bilayer triangular lattice antiferromagnet \rcs{} under applied magnetic fields. A cascade of magnetization plateaus appears at $M/M_s = 1/3, 1/2, 2/3,$ and $5/6$, together with a weak anomalous feature near $M/M_s = 1/6$, in fields up to 60 T. Concurrent changes in magneto-dielectric response follows the plateau boundaries. The finite slope of each plateau and the absence of a zero-field gap in our ultralow-temperature ac susceptibility down to 20 mK indicate broken $U(1)$ spin-rotation symmetry. A minimal bilayer-dimer model treated with bond operator representation reproduces the low-field sequence only when $U(1)$ symmetry is explicitly lifted by spin-orbit-driven, bond-dependent anisotropy. Near saturation, a projected triangular pseudospin model accounts for the high-field plateaus with modest further-neighbor interactions. These results demonstrate that anisotropic exchange arising from spin-orbit-coupled moments is essential for stabilizing the full plateau hierarchy in \rcs{}, a mechanism overlooked in previous interpretations of Co-based triangular bilayers.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Beyond the Lowest Landau Level: Unlocking More Robust Fractional States Using Flat Chern Bands with Higher Vortexability

Enhancing the many-body gap of a fractional state is crucial for realizing robust fractional excitations. For fractional Chern insulators, existing studies suggest that making flat Chern bands closely resemble the lowest Landau level (LLL) seems to maximize the excitation gap, providing an apparently optimal platform. In this work, we demonstrate that deforming away from the LLL limit can, in fact, produce substantially larger FQH gaps. Using moir\'e flat bands with strongly non-Landau-level wavefunctions, we show that the gap can exceed that of the LLL by more than two orders of magnitude for short-range interactions and by factors of two to three for long-range interactions. This enhancement is generic across Abelian FCI states and follows a universal enhancement factor within each hierarchy. Using the Landau level framework, we identify the amplification of pseudopotentials as the microscopic origin of the observed enhancement. This finding demonstrates that pseudopotential engineering can substantially strengthen fractional topological phases. We further examined non-Abelian states and found that, within finite-size resolution, this wavefunction construction method can also be used to manipulate and enhance the gap for certain interaction parameters.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Modeling Quantum Geometry for Fractional Chern Insulators with unsupervised learning

Fractional Chern insulators (FCIs) in moire materials present a unique platform for exploring strongly correlated topological phases beyond the paradigm of ideal quantum geometry. While analytical approaches to FCIs and fractional quantum Hall states (FQHS) often rely on idealized Bloch wavefunctions, realistic moire models lack direct tunability of quantum metric and Berry curvature, limiting theoretical and numerical exploration. Here, we introduce an unsupervised machine learning framework to model interacting Hamiltonians directly through the distribution of single-particle form factors. Using a variational autoencoder (VAE), we show that unsupervised learning can not only distinguish FCI and non-FCI states, but also generate new form factors with distinct topological character, not present in the training set. This latent space enables the generation and interpolation of form factors for topological flatbands with Chern number $|C|=1$, enabling the discovery of unobserved many-body states such as charge density waves. Principal component analysis (PCA) further reveals that the dominant patterns in the form factors-reflecting correlations across the Brillouin zone-can be decomposed into components with approximately quantized Chern numbers, providing new insights into the global and topological structure of quantum geometry. Our results highlight the ability of machine learning to generalize and model topological quantum systems, paving the way for the inverse design of form factors with tailored quantum geometry and many-body phases in flatband materials.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Quantum Printing

We introduce the concept of quantum printing -- the imprinting of quantum states from photons and phonons onto quantum matter. The discussion is focusing on charged fluids (metals, superconductors, Hall fluids) and neutral systems (magnets, excitons). We demonstrate how structured light can generate topological excitations, including vortices in superconductors and skyrmions in magnets. We also discuss how quantum printing induces magnetization in quantum paraelectrics and strain-mediated magnetization in Dirac materials. Finally, we propose future applications, such as printing entangled photon states, creating entangled topological excitations, and discuss applications of quantum printing to light induced quantum turbulence in a charged fluid. This review represents the expanded version of the shorter review submitted to Nature Physics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Strong Correlation Driven Quadrupolar to Dipolar Exciton Transitions in a Trilayer Moir\'e Superlattice

The additional layer degree of freedom in trilayer moir\'e superlattices of transition metal dichalcogenides enables the emergence of novel excitonic species, such as quadrupolar excitons, which exhibit unique excitonic interactions and hold promise for realizing intriguing excitonic phases and their quantum phase transitions. Concurrently, the presence of strong electronic correlations in moir\'e superlattices, as exemplified by the observations of Mott insulators and generalized Wigner crystals, offers a direct route to manipulate these new excitonic states and resulting collective excitonic phases. Here, we demonstrate that strong exciton-exciton and electron-exciton interactions, both stemming from robust electron correlations, can be harnessed to controllably drive transitions between quadrupolar and dipolar excitons. This is achieved by tuning either the exciton density or electrostatic doping in a trilayer semiconducting moir\'e superlattice. Our findings not only advance the fundamental understanding of quadrupolar excitons but also usher in new avenues for exploring and engineering many-body quantum phenomena through novel correlated excitons in semiconducting moir\'e systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2025

Quantum oscillation and topology change of the uncondensed Landau Fermi surface in superconducting CeCoIn5

Metals typically have multiple Fermi surface sheets, and when they enter the superconducting state, some electrons on these sheets may remain uncondensed, or their superconducting pairs can be rapidly destroyed by a magnetic field. Detecting uncondensed electrons within the superconducting state provides key information about the underlying electronic structure; however, this task remains a significant experimental challenge. Here we demonstrate quantum oscillations from the uncondensed electrons in the heavy-fermion superconductor CeCoIn5, observed through thermal conductivity measurements with a magnetic field rotating within the tetragonal a-b plane. We detect a fine structure in thermal conductivity, characterized by multiple small resonances (oscillations) in a rotating magnetic field. Remarkably, the phase of these resonances shifted by as much as {\pi} for a field above 9.7 T where spin-density wave (SDW) order emerges and coexists with superconductivity. This phase shift is naturally explained by a change in the Berry phase of the uncondensed Fermi surface, driven by the Fermi surface reconstruction associated with the onset of SDW order. Our work unambiguously shows the existence of uncondensed electrons in the superconducting state of CeCoIn5, thus resolving a longstanding debate on this issue.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2025

Realization of a Kondo Insulator in a Multilayer Moire Superlattice

Kondo insulators are a paradigmatic strongly correlated electron system, arising from the hybridization between itinerary conduction electrons and localized magnetic moments, which opens a gap in the band of conduction electrons. Traditionally, the known Kondo insulators are found in materials with f-electrons. Recent developments in two-dimensional (2D) moire systems provide a new approach to generate flat bands with strong electron correlation, which host localized moments at half filling. In this work, we demonstrate the realization of a Kondo insulator phase in a moire superlattice of monolayer WS2 / bilayer WSe2 which hosts a set of moire flat bands in the WSe2 layer interfacing the WS2 layer and dispersive bands in the other WSe2 layer. When both WSe2 layers are partially doped but with a total density of two holes per moire unit cell, an insulating state appears when the density of the moire band is below one hole per moire unit cell. The insulating state disappears above a certain threshold magnetic field and the system becomes metallic, which is a telltale signature of the Kondo insulator. The physics can be well explained by a periodic Anderson lattice model that includes both the on-site Coulomb repulsion in the moire flat band and the hybridization between moire flat and non-moire dispersive bands. Our results suggest that multilayer moire structures of transition metal dichalcogenides provide a tunable platform to simulate the Kondo insulator, which holds promise to tackle many critical open questions in the Kondo insulators.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Spontaneous vortex lattice due to orbital magnetization in valley polarized superconductors

In this work, we study the spontaneous formation of a vortex lattice in two-dimensional valley polarized superconductors due to orbital magnetization. The screening of magnetic field is weak for two-dimension superconductors, allowing for the magnetic flux associated with vortices to penetrate deep into the superconducting region. The Zeeman coupling between orbital magnetization and magnetic fields associated with vortices leads to the formation of a vortex lattice, once the vortex self-energy is lower than the Zeeman energy. We study the phase diagram and the vortex lattice configuration, and discuss the consequences of the vortex lattice formation in various experimental setups.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2025

Geometric Origin of Phonon Magnetic Moment in Dirac Materials

We develop a theory for the phonon magnetic moment in doped Dirac materials, treating phonons as emergent gauge and gravitational fields coupled to Dirac fermions in curved space. By classifying electron-phonon coupling into angular momentum channels of Fermi surface deformation, we show that the phonon moment arises from two mechanisms: proportional to the electron Hall conductivity through the emergent gauge field coupling, and to the Hall viscosity through the frame field coupling. Applying our theory to Cd$_3$As$_2$ with first-principles calculations, we find quantitative agreement with experiment. Our results reveal a general mechanism for dynamically generating large phonon magnetism in metals and suggest a new route for probing Hall viscosity via phonon dynamics.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2025

Unconventional Fractional Phases in Multi-Band Vortexable Systems

In this Letter, we study topological flat bands with distinct features that deviate from conventional Landau level behavior. We show that even in the ideal quantum geometry limit, moire flat band systems can exhibit physical phenomena fundamentally different from Landau levels without lattices. In particular, we find new fractional quantum Hall states emerging from multi-band vortexable systems, where multiple exactly flat bands appear at the Fermi energy. While the set of bands as a whole exhibits ideal quantum geometry, individual bands separately lose vortexability, and thus making them very different from a stack of Landau levels. At certain filling fractions, we find fractional states whose Hall conductivity deviates from the filling factor. Through careful numerical and analytical studies, we rule out all known mechanisms--such as fractional quantum Hall crystals or separate filling of trivial and topological bands--as possible explanations. Leveraging the exact solvability of vortexable systems, we use analytic Bloch wavefunctions to uncover the origin of these new fractional states, which arises from the commensurability between the moire unit cell and the magnetic unit cell of an emergent effective magnetic field.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Chiral superconductivity from spin polarized Chern band in twisted MoTe$_2$

Superconductivity has been observed in twisted MoTe2 within the anomalous Hall metal parent state. Key signatures-including a fully spin/valley polarized normal state, anomalous Hall resistivity hysteresis, superconducting phase adjacent to the fractional Chern insulating state and a narrow superconducting dome at zero gating field-collectively indicate chiral superconductivity driven by intravalley pairing of electrons. Within the Kohn-Luttinger mechanism, we compute the superconducting phase diagram via random phase approximation, incorporating Coulomb repulsion in a realistic continuum model. Our results identify a dominant intravalley pairing with a narrow superconducting dome of p+ip type at zero gate field. This chiral phase contrasts sharply with the much weaker time-reversal-symmetric intervalley pairing at finite gating field. Our work highlights the role of band topology in achieving robust topological superconductivity, and supports the chiral and topological nature of the superconductivity observed in twisted MoTe2.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2025

Spin-Triplet Excitonic Insulator in the Ultra-Quantum Limit of HfTe5

More than fifty years ago, excitonic insulators, formed by the pairing of electrons and holes due to Coulomb interactions, were first predicted. Since then, excitonic insulators have been observed in various classes of materials, including quantum Hall bilayers, graphite, transition metal chalcogenides, and more recently in moire superlattices. In these excitonic insulators, an electron and a hole with the same spin bind together and the resulting exciton is a spin singlet. Here, we report the experimental observation of a spin-triplet exciton insulator in the ultra-quantum limit of a three-dimensional topological material HfTe5. We observe that the spin-polarized zeroth Landau bands, dispersing along the field direction, cross each other beyond a characteristic magnetic field in HfTe5, forming the one-dimensional Weyl mode. Transport measurements reveal the emergence of a gap of about 250 {\mu}eV when the field surpasses a critical threshold. By performing the material-specific modeling, we identify this gap as a consequence of a spin-triplet exciton formation, where electrons and holes with opposite spin form bound states, and the translational symmetry is preserved. The system reaches charge neutrality following the gap opening, as evidenced by the zero Hall conductivity over a wide magnetic field range (10 - 72 T). Our finding of the spin-triplet excitonic insulator paves the way for studying novel spin transport including spin superfluidity, spin Josephson currents, and Coulomb drag of spin currents in analogy to the transport properties associated with the layer pseudospin in quantum Hall bilayers.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2024

Ferromagnetic ordering in mazelike stripe liquid of a dipolar six-state clock model

We present a comprehensive numerical study of a six-state clock model with a long-range dipolar type interaction. This model is motivated by the ferroelectric orders in the multiferroic hexagonal manganites. At low temperatures, trimerization of local atomic structures leads to six distinct but energetically degenerate structural distortion, which can be modeled by a six-state clock model. Moreover, the atomic displacements in the trimerized state further produce a local electric polarization whose sign depends on whether the clock variable is even or odd. These induced electric dipoles, which can be modeled by emergent Ising degrees of freedom, interact with each other via long-range dipolar interactions. Extensive Monte Carlo simulations are carried out to investigate low temperature phases resulting from the competing interactions. Upon lowering temperature, the system undergoes two Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transitions, characteristic of the standard six-state clock model in two dimensions. The dipolar interaction between emergent Ising spins induces a first-order transition into a ground state characterized by a three-fold degenerate stripe order. The intermediate phase between the discontinuous and the second BKT transition corresponds to a maze-like hexagonal liquid with short-range stripe ordering. Moreover, this intermediate phase also exhibits an unusual ferromagnetic order with two adjacent clock variables occupying the two types of stripes of the labyrinthine pattern.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗