Merging Dirac points and topological phase transitions in the tight-binding model on the generalized honeycomb lattice

Abstract

Moving, merging and annihilating Dirac points are studied theoretically in the tight-binding model on honeycomb lattice with up-to third-nearest-neighbor hoppings. We obtain a rich phase diagram of the topological phase transitions in the parameter space of direction-dependent hoppings. We obtain the conditions for the three Dirac points to merge and for the tricritical points. We find that only very small third-nearest-neighbor hoppings are enough for the existence of the merging of three-Dirac-points and the tricritical points, if the system is sufficiently anisotropic. The density of states is obtained to be $D(\epsilon )\propto |\epsilon {|}^{1/3}$ when three Dirac points merge, and $D(\epsilon )\propto |\epsilon {|}^{1/4}$ at the tricritical points. It is possible to realize these topological phase transitions in the ultracold atoms on the optical lattice, strained monolayer graphene or strained bilayer graphene.

19 pages, 25 figures

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Cited by in corpus (1)

• Double transfer through Dirac points in a tunable honeycomb optical lattice