Mott insulators in a fully frustrated Bose-Hubbard model on the honeycomb lattice

Abstract

We examine the effects of quantum fluctuations on a classical spin liquid state in the fully frustrated honeycomb lattice Bose-Hubbard model in the hard-core limit using quantum Monte Carlo simulations. Frustration is induced explicitly in the model by modulating the sign of the nearest-neighbor interaction spatially around each lattice hexagon. A superfluid-to-Mott insulating quantum phase transition can be induced by varying the relative strength of the classical interaction and quantum hopping. In the cases where the interaction has a regular spatial modulation, hopping promotes a phase transition to a symmetry-broken half-filled valence-bond solid state. When the interaction is forced to have no regular pattern, the insulating state is found to be random and gapped, suggesting the existence of a Mott glass phase. © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.