Supersolid phase of Three-dimensional spin and hardcore-boson models

Abstract

We study the stability of solid- and supersolid (SS) phases of a three-dimensional spin- and a hardcore-Bose-Hubbard models on a body-centered cubic lattice. To see the quantum effects on the stability of the SS phase, we model the vacancies (interstitials) introduced in the solid, which are believed responsible for the appearance of the SS phase, by spinwave bosons and adopt the interaction between the condensed bosons as a criterion. A repulsive nature of the low-energy effective interaction is the necessary condition for a second-order solid-SS transition and, when this condition is met, normally the SS phase is expected. In calculating the effective interaction, we use expansions from the semiclassical- (i.e. large-S) and the Ising limit combined with the ladder approximation. The impact of quantum fluctuations crucially depends on the energy of the solid phase and that of the superfluid phase at half filling. As an application to 4He, we study the parameter region in the vicinity of the fitting parameter set given by Liu and Fisher. For this parameters set, quantum fluctuations at the second order in 1/S destabilize the solid phase, which is supposed to be stable within the mean field theory.