• DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.99.075158
• Corpus ID: 119048202

First-order topological quantum phase transition in a strongly correlated ladder

@article{Barbarino2018FirstorderTQ,
  title={First-order topological quantum phase transition in a strongly correlated ladder},
  author={Simone Barbarino and Giorgio Sangiovanni and Jan Carl Budich},
  journal={Physical Review B},
  year={2018}
}

• S. Barbarino, G. Sangiovanni, J. C. Budich
• Published 3 December 2018
• Physics
• Physical Review B

We report on the discovery of a quantum tri-critical point (QTP) separating a line of first-order topological quantum phase transitions from a continuous transition regime in a strongly correlated one-dimensional lattice system. Specifically, we study a fermionic four-leg ladder supporting a symmetry-protected topological phase in the presence of on-site interaction, which is driven towards a trivial gapped phase by a nearest-neighbor interaction. Based on DMRG simulations, we show that, as a function of the interaction strength, the phase transition between the topological and the trivial phase switches from being continuous to exhibiting a first-order character. Remarkably, the QTP as well as the first-order character of the topological transition in the strongly correlated regime are found to clearly manifest in simple local observables.