Numerical observation of $\mathrm{SU}(N)$ Nagaoka ferromagnetism

Abstract

We provide numerical evidence of the Nagaoka's theorem in the $\mathrm{SU}(N)$ Fermi-Hubbard model on various cluster geometries, such as the square, the honeycomb and the triangular lattices. In particular, by diagonalizing several finite-size clusters, we show that for one hole away from filling $1/N$, the itinerant ferromagnetism arises for $U$ (the positive on-site interaction) larger than $U_c$ (the value at the transition), which strongly depends on the coordination number $z$ and on $N$, the number of degenerate orbitals, that we vary from $N=2$ to $N=6$ in our simulations. We prove that $U_c$ is a non decreasing function of $N$. In addition, we find that the lattice dependency is rooted in the kinetic energy of the hole. We find that large coordination numbers $z$ lower the value of $U_c$. Complementary, we explore the effect of long-range hopping on the appearance of itinerant ferromagnetism and demonstrate that it acts as an increased coordination number, protecting the ferromagnetic phase at small $U$. Finally, both the effects of the presence of some additional holes and of the finite size of the clusters are briefly discussed.

14 pages, 9 figures