arXiv subjects

Xue-Yang Song

Publications and source records attributed to Xue-Yang Song.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Discrete Shift and Polarization from Response to Symmetry Defects in Interacting Topological Phases

We extend the previous study of extracting crystalline symmetry-protected topological invariants to the correlated regime. We construct the interacting Hofstadter model defined on square lattice with the rotation and translation symmetry defects: disclination and dislocation. The model realizes Chern insulator and the charge density wave state as one tunes interactions. Employing the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method, we calculate the excess charge around the defects and find that the topological invariants remain quantized in both phases, with the topological quantity extracted to great precision. This study paves the way for utilizing matrix product state, and potentially other quantum many-body computation methods, to efficiently study crystalline symmetry defects on 2D interacting lattice systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2026

Emergence of Topological Electron Crystals in Bilayer Graphene--Mott Insulator Heterostructures

The interplay between strong electron correlation and band topology offers a playground for discovering exotic quantum phases. Here, we predict the emergence of topological electron crystals in a charge-transfer bilayer graphene-Mott insulator heterostructure. In this system, interlayer charge transfer induces a charge-neutral electron-hole bilayer with strong mass asymmetry. While the extreme dilute limit favors a classical triangular dipolar Wigner crystal, we show that increasing the carrier density triggers a critical competition between the Coulomb interaction and the underlying topological band structure of bilayer graphene. This interplay destabilizes the triangular dipolar Wigner crystal and instead stabilizes intrinsic quantum electron crystals with spontaneously formed honeycomb and kagome geometries. Crucially, these new phases can host distinct topological responses including the quantum anomalous and quantum spin Hall effects, which inherit the nonlocal quantum geometry of the bilayer graphene wave functions. Our results establish this artificial heterostructure as a highly tunable platform for mimicking two-dimensional topological solids in a single device.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2026

Quantum Metric Bound State of Light

The spatial confinement of defect-induced bound states is conventionally governed by the effective mass in dispersive bands. More recently, Compact Localized States (CLSs) arising from exact destructive interference have been utilized to achieve confinement in flat bands. However, CLSs rely on pristine lattice symmetries and fine-tuned defect profiles. The introduction of a generic local impurity inevitably breaks these strict phase-matching conditions, resulting in extensive bound states whose fundamental length scale has remained an open question. Here, we establish a third regime of confinement: the quantum metric bound state. We provide a rigorous mathematical proof demonstrating that in the absence of kinetic energy and CLS protection, the exponential decay length of these states is lower-bounded by the quantum metric of the unperturbed flat band. We demonstrate the tightness of this geometric limit by constructing a family of highly tunable flat-band generators, and we verify its universality across diverse realistic architectures. Ultimately, this classification establishes the independently measurable quantum metric as a predictive design principle for engineering confined modes in synthetic wave platforms.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2026

Moire driven edge reconstruction in Fractional quantum anomalous Hall states

We investigate fractional edge modes in moire fractional quantum anomalous Hall states, focusing on the role of lattice momentum conservation and umklapp scattering. For the hierarchical nu=2/3 state, we show that, for a class of microscopic edge realizations, moire-enabled umklapp processes can stabilize the Kane-Fisher-Polchinski fixed point even in the absence of disorder. Our results illustrate how lattice momentum constraints can qualitatively reshape the interaction structure and low-energy behavior of fractional edge modes. The study of Umklapp processes in edge reconstruction serves as a crucial bridge to understanding thermal and electrical transport in the hierarchical fractional quantum anomalous Hall states found in lattice systems of quantum simulators.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2026

Unnecessary quantum criticality in $SU(3)$ kagome magnets

Algebraic/Dirac spin liquids (DSLs) are a class of critical quantum ground states that do not have a quasi-particle description. DSLs and related spin liquid phases often arise in strongly frustrated quantum spin systems, in which strong correlations and quantum fluctuations among constituent spins persist down to zero temperature. In this work, we analyze Mott insulating phases of $SU(3)$ fermions on a kagome lattice which may realize a DSL phase, described at low energies by $(2 + 1)d$ quantum electrodynamics (QED$_3$) with $N_f=6$ Dirac fermions. By analyzing the action of physical symmetries on the operators of the QED$_3$ theory, we conclude that the low energy DSL is a quantum critical point that can be accessed by tuning a single microscopic parameter. Aided by the emergent symmetry and anomalies of the low energy effective theory, we conjecture and present supporting arguments that the $SU(3)$ Kagome magnet DSL is an unnecessary quantum critical point, lying completely within a single phase.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2026

Phases and criticality of the triangular lattice SU(N) Hofstadter-Hubbard model

We report the study of phases and transitions of SU(N) Hofstadter-Hubbard model subject to commensurate magnetic field on the triangular lattice. At filling one fermion per site, for the number of fermion flavors 2 <= N <= 8, we identify three distinct phases and calculate critical interaction strength from parton large-N mean-field approximation. Integer quantum Hall, chiral spin liquid, and valence bond solid states could be realized upon varying the Hubbard interaction U and the number of flavor N . We construct the critical theory for the putative continuous transition from quantum Hall states to chiral spin liquid and calculate the critical transport behavior using quantum Boltzmann equations for general N . These results could be validated in synthetic systems such as moire superlattices and cold atom platforms.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2026

Emergent QED$_3$ at the bosonic Laughlin state to superfluid transition

Quantum phase transitions between topologically ordered and symmetry-broken phases lie beyond Landau theory. A prime example is the conjectured continuous transition from the bosonic $ν= 1/2$ Laughlin state to a superfluid, proposed to be governed by a QED$_3$--Chern--Simons (CS) critical point whose stability remains uncertain. We study half-filled bosons in the lowest Landau level subject to a lattice potential. Infinite-cylinder DMRG reveals a single continuous Laughlin--to--superfluid transition. Adiabatic flux insertion collapses the many-body gap and exposes massless Dirac quasiparticles, while momentum-resolved correlation lengths show that three lattice-related density modes share the same critical exponent, evidencing an emergent $SO(3)$ symmetry. The joint appearance of Dirac dispersion and symmetry enlargement provides microscopic support for a stable QED$_3$--CS fixed point. Our numerical strategy also offers a blueprint for exploring Landau-forbidden transitions in fractional Chern insulators and composite Fermi liquids realised in moire and cold-atom systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Anyon Superconductivity from Topological Criticality in a Hofstadter-Hubbard Model

We argue that the combination of strong repulsive interactions and high magnetic fields can generate electron pairing and superconductivity. Inspired by the large lattice constants of moiré materials, which make large flux per unit cell accessible at laboratory fields, we study the triangular lattice Hofstadter-Hubbard model at one-quarter flux quantum per plaquette, where previous literature has argued that a chiral spin liquid separates a weak-coupling integer quantum Hall phase and a strong-coupling topologically-trivial antiferromagnetic insulator at a density of one electron per site. We argue that topological superconductivity emerges upon doping in the vicinity of the integer quantum Hall to chiral spin liquid transition. We employ exact diagonalization and density matrix renormalization group methods to examine this theoretical scenario and find that electronic pairing indeed occurs on both sides of criticality over a remarkably broad range of interaction strengths. On the chiral spin liquid side, our results provide a concrete model realization of the long-hypothesized mechanism of anyon superconductivity. Our study thus establishes a beyond-BCS mechanism for electron pairing in a well-controlled limit, relying crucially on the interplay between electron correlations and band topology.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Charge-4$e$ Anyon Superconductor from Doping $\text{SU}(4)_1$ chiral spin liquid

Previous studies have shown that $\text{SU}(4)_1$ chiral spin liquid can emerge in the SU($4$) Hubbard model on triangular lattice. A natural question then arises: What is the phase upon doping? In this work, we show the possibility that hole doping can give rise to an anyon superconductor and propose that both spinons and holons form integer quantum Hall states with opposite chiralities. Using topological field theory we demonstrate that the phase is a topological charge-$4e$ superconductor with chiral central charge $c_-=4$. We further identify the deconfined excitations and anyonic excitations bound to the vortex. This unusual superconductor may be realized in moir'e bilayer and detected through quantized thermal Hall effect and spin quantum Hall effect.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Dirac spin liquid as an "unnecessary" quantum critical point on square lattice antiferromagnets

Quantum spin liquids are exotic phases of quantum matter especially pertinent to many modern condensed matter systems. Dirac spin liquids (DSLs) are a class of gapless quantum spin liquids that do not have a quasi-particle description and are potentially realized in a wide variety of spin $1/2$ magnetic systems on $2d$ lattices. In particular, the DSL in square lattice spin-$1/2$ magnets is described at low energies by $(2+1)d$ quantum electrodynamics with $N_f=4$ flavors of massless Dirac fermions minimally coupled to an emergent $U(1)$ gauge field. The existence of a relevant, symmetry-allowed monopole perturbation renders the DSL on the square lattice intrinsically unstable. We argue that the DSL describes a stable continuous phase transition within the familiar Neel phase (or within the Valence Bond Solid (VBS) phase). In other words, the DSL is an "unnecessary" quantum critical point within a single phase of matter. Our result offers a novel view of the square lattice DSL in that the critical spin liquid can exist within either the Neel or VBS state itself, and does not require leaving these conventional states.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2024

Phase transitions out of quantum Hall states in moiré materials

Motivated by the recent experimental breakthroughs in observing Fractional Quantum Anomalous Hall (FQAH) states in moiré materials, we propose and study various unconventional phase transitions between quantum Hall phases and Fermi liquids or charge ordered phases upon tuning the bandwidth. At a fixed rational lattice filling $ν$, we describe a quantum Ginzburg-Landau theory to describe the intertwinement between the FQAH and Charge Density Wave (CDW) orders. We use this theory to describe phase transitions between the FQAH and a CDW insulator. The critical theory for a direct second order transition resembles that of the familiar deconfined quantum critical point (DQCP) but with an additional Chern-Simons term. At filling -1/2, we study the possibility of a continuous transition between the composite Fermi liquid (CFL) and the Fermi liquid (FL) building on and refining previous work by Barkeshli and McGreevy. Crucially we show that filling constraints ignored in that work ensure that translation symmetry alone is enough to enable a second order CFL-FL transition. We argue that there must be critical CDW fluctuations though neither phase has long range CDW order. We present experimental signatures the most striking of which is a universal jump of both longitudinal and Hall resistivities at the critical point. With disorder, we argue that the CDW order gets pinned and the CFL-FL evolution happens through an intermediate electrically insulating phase with mobile neutral fermions. A clean analog of this insulating phase with long range CDW order and a neutral fermi surface can potentially also exist. We also present a critical theory for the CFL to FL transition at filling -3/4. Our work opens up a new avenue to realize deconfined criticality and fractionalized phases beyond familiar Landau level physics in the moire Chern band system.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2024

Moore-Read state in Half-filled Moiré Chern band from three-body Pseudo-potential

The moiré system provides a tunable platform for exploring exotic phases of materials. This article shows the possible realization of a non-Abelian state characterized by the Moore-Read wavefunction in a half-filled moiré Chern band, exemplified by twisted $\rm MoTe_2$. This is achieved by introducing short-range repulsive three-body interaction. Exact diagonalization is employed to examine the spectrum in finite size. The incompressibility of the system, the degeneracy of the ground states, and the number of low-energy states provide compelling evidence to identify the ground state as the Moore-Read state. We further interpolate between the three-body interaction and Coulomb interaction to show a phase transition between the composite Fermi-liquid and the Moore-Read state. Finally, we consider the effect of band mixing and derive the three-body interaction using perturbation theory. By exploring the conditions under which band mixing effects mimic short-range repulsive three-body interaction we provide insights towards realizing non-Abelian phases of matter in the moiré system.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Density wave halo around anyons in fractional quantum anomalous hall states

The recent observation of fractional quantum anomalous Hall (FQAH) states in tunable moiré materials encourages study of several new phenomena that may be uniquely accessible in these platforms. Here, we show that an isolated localized anyon of the FQAH state will nucleate a `halo' of Charge Density Wave (CDW) order around it. We demonstrate this effect using a a recently proposed quantum Ginzburg-Landau theory that describes the interplay between the topological order of the FQAH and the broken symmetry order of a CDW. The spatial extent of the CDW order will, in general, be larger than the length scale at which the fractional charge of the anyon is localized. The strength and decay length of the CDW order around anyons induced by doping or magnetic field differs qualitatively from that nucleated by a random potential. Our results leverage a precise mathematical analogy to earlier studies of the superfluid-CDW competition of a system of lattice bosons which has been used to interpret the observed CDW halos around vortices in high-$T_c$ superconductors. We show that measurement of these patches of CDW order can give an indirect route to measuring the fractional charge of the anyon. Such a measurement may be possible by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) in moiré systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Intertwined fractional quantum anomalous Hall states and charge density waves

Motivated by the recent experimental breakthrough on the observation of the fractional quantum anomalous Hall (FQAH) effects in semiconductor and graphene moiré materials, we explore the rich physics associated with the coexistence of FQAH effect and the charge density wave (CDW) order that spontaneously breaks the translation symmetry. We refer to a state with both properties as "FQAH-crystal". We show that the interplay between FQAH effect and CDW can lead to a rich phase diagram including multiple topological phases and topological quantum phase transitions at the same moiré filling. In particular, we demonstrate the possibility of direct quantum phase transitions from a FQAH-crystal with Hall conductivity $σ_H = - 2/3$ to a trivial CDW insulator with $σ_H = 0$, and more interestingly, to a QAH-crystal with $σ_H= -1$.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Deconfined criticalities and dualities between chiral spin liquid, topological superconductor and charge density wave Chern insulator

We propose bi-critical and tri-critical theories between chiral spin liquid (CSL), topological superconductor (SC) and charge density wave (CDW) ordered Chern insulator with Chern number $C=2$ on square, triangular and kagome lattices. The three CDW order parameters form a manifold of $S^2$ or $S^1$ depending on whether there is easy-plane anisotropy. The skyrmion defect of the CDW order carries physical charge $2e$ and its condensation leads to a topological superconductor. The CDW-SC transitions are in the same universality classes as the celebrated deconfined quantum critical points (DQCP) between Neel order and valence bond solid order on square lattice. Both SC and CDW order can be accessed from the CSL phase through a continuous phase transition. At the CSL-SC transition, there is still CDW order fluctuations although CDW is absent in both sides. We propose three different theories for the CSL-SC transition (and CSL to easy-plane CDW transition): a $U(1)$ theory with two bosons, a $U(1)$ theory with two Dirac fermions, and an $SU(2)$ theory with two bosons. Our construction offers a derivation of the duality between these three theories as well as a promising physical realization. The $SU(2)$ theory offers a unified framework for a series of fixed points with explicit $SO(5), O(4)$ or $SO(3)\times O(2)$ symmetry. There is also a transparent duality transformation mapping SC order to easy-plane CDW order. The CSL-SC-CDW tri-critical points are invariant under this duality mapping and have an enlarged $SO(5)$ or $O(4)$ symmetry. The DQCPs between CDW and SC inherit the enlarged symmetry, emergent anomaly, and self-duality from the tri-critical point. Our analysis unifies the well-studied DQCP between symmetry breaking phases into a larger framework where they are proximate to a topologically ordered phase.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Emergent QED$_3$ from half-filled flat Chern bands

In recent years, two-dimensional Dirac materials patterned with a superlattice structure have emerged as a rich platform for exploring correlated and topological quantum matter. In this work, we propose that by subjecting Dirac electrons to a periodic magnetic field with triangular lattice symmetry it is possible to realize a quantum critical phase of $N_f=3$ Dirac fermion species strongly coupled to an emergent gauge field, or 2+1-D quantum electrodynamics (QED$_3$). We demonstrate explicitly that the QED$_3$ phase naturally arises from a Dirac composite fermion (CF) picture, where the periodic magnetic field manifests as a periodic CF potential and transforms the CF Fermi surface into gapless Fermi points. We further show that by breaking the particle-hole symmetry of the TI surface -- either by doping or by introducing a periodic electrostatic potential with zero mean -- our quantum critical phase gives way to a sequence of fractional Chern insulator phases. Our theory illustrates the rich menagerie of quantum phases possible around half filling of a flat Chern band.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2022

Translation-enriched $Z_2$ spin liquids and topological vison bands: Possible application to $α$-RuCl$_3$

Inspired by experiments on the magnetic field induced phases of the spin-orbit coupled $2d$ Mott insulator $α$-RuCl$_3$, we study some general aspects of gapped $Z_2$ Quantum Spin Liquids (QSL) enriched by lattice translation symmetry. We show that there are $12$ distinct such phases with different implementations of translation symmetry. In some of these phases the vison excitations of this QSL may form topological Chern bands. We explore a phenomenological description of a putative $Z_2$ QSL as a candidate ground state at intermediate magnetic fields in $α$-RuCl$_3$. This state has broad continuum spectra in neutron scattering, a "bosonic" thermal Hall signal that goes to zero at zero temperature, and a natural connection with a zigzag magnetic ordered state, all of which are also seen in $α$-RuCl$_3$. On general grounds continuum scattering will also be seen at multiple points in the Brillouin zone in this state.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Doping a moiré Mott Insulator: A t-J model study of twisted cuprates

We theoretically investigate twisted structures where each layer is composed of a strongly correlated material. In particular, we study a twisted t-J model of cuprate multilayers within the slave-boson mean field theory. This treatment encompasses the Mott physics at small doping and self consistently generates d-wave pairing. Furthermore, including the correct inter-layer tunneling form factor consistent with the symmetry of the Cu $d_{x^2-y^2}$ orbital proves to be crucial for the phase diagram. We find spontaneous time reversal (T) breaking around twist angle of $45^\circ$, although only in a narrow window of twist angles. Moreover, the gap obtained is small and the Chern number vanishes, implying a non-topological superconductor. At smaller twist angles, driving an interlayer current however can lead to a gapped topological phase. The energy-phase relation of the interlayer Josephson junction displays notable double-Cooper-pair tunneling which dominates around $45^o$. The twist angle dependence of the Josephson critical current and the Shapiro steps are consistent with recent experiments. Utilizing the moiré structure as a probe of correlation physics, in particular of the pair density wave state, is discussed.

cond-mat.supr-con↗