Gross-Neveu-Heisenberg criticality from competing nematic and antiferromagnetic orders in bilayer graphene

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Abstract

We study the phase diagram of an effective model of competing nematic and antiferromagnetic orders of interacting electrons on the Bernal-stacked honeycomb bilayer, as relevant for bilayer graphene. In the noninteracting limit, the model features a semimetallic ground state with quadratic band touching points at the Fermi level. Taking the effects of short-range interactions into account, we demonstrate the existence of an extended region in the mean-field phase diagram characterized by coexisting nematic and antiferromagnetic orders. By means of a renormalization group approach, we reveal that the quantum phase transition from nematic to coexistent nematic-antiferromagnetic orders is continuous and characterized by emergent Lorentz symmetry. It falls into the (2+1)-dimensional relativistic Gross-Neveu-Heisenberg quantum universality class, which has recently been much investigated in the context of interacting Dirac systems in two spatial dimensions. The coexistence-to-antiferromagnetic transition, by contrast, turns out to be weakly first order as a consequence of the absence of the continuous spatial rotational symmetry on the honeycomb bilayer. Implications for experiments in bilayer graphene are discussed.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number045101
JournalPhysical review. B
Volume104
Issue number4
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jul 2021
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

Scopus 85109217613

Keywords