Intrinsic Thermal Hall Effect in Mott Insulators
Authors: Jixun K. Ding, Emily Z. Zhang, Wen O. Wang, Tessa Cookmeyer, Brian Moritz, Yong Baek Kim, Thomas P. Devereaux
Abstract: In light of recent experimental data indicating a substantial thermal Hall effect in square lattice antiferromagnetic Mott insulators, we investigate whether a simple Mott insulator can sustain a finite thermal Hall effect. We verify that the answer is "no" if one performs calculations within a spin-only low-energy effective spin model with non-interacting magnons. However, by performing determinant quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we show the single-band $t$-$t'$-$U$ Hubbard model coupled to an orbital magnetic field does support a finite thermal Hall effect when $t' \neq 0$ and $B \neq 0$ in the Mott insulating phase. We argue that the (carrier agnostic) necessary conditions for observing a finite thermal Hall effect are time-reversal and particle-hole symmetry breaking. By considering magnon-magnon scattering using a semi-classical Boltzmann analysis, we illustrate a physical mechanism by which finite transverse thermal conductivity may arise, consistent with our symmetry argument and numerical results. Our results contradict the conventional wisdom that square and triangular lattices with SU(2) symmetry do not support a finite thermal Hall effect and call for a critical re-examination of thermal Hall effect data in insulating magnets, as the magnon contribution should not be excluded a priori.
Explore the paper tree
Click on the tree nodes to be redirected to a given paper and access their summaries and virtual assistant
Look for similar papers (in beta version)
By clicking on the button above, our algorithm will scan all papers in our database to find the closest based on the contents of the full papers and not just on metadata. Please note that it only works for papers that we have generated summaries for and you can rerun it from time to time to get a more accurate result while our database grows.