The occurrence of a Mott-like gap in single-particle spectra of electron systems possessing flat bands

Abstract

An unconventional type of the Mott's insulators where the gap in the spectrum of single-particle excitations is associated with repulsive effective interactions between quasiparticles is shown to exist in strongly correlated electron systems of solids that possess flat bands. The occurrence of this gap is demonstrated to be the consequence of violation of particle-hole symmetry, inherent in such systems. The results obtained are applied to elucidate the Fermi arc structure observed at temperatures up to $100\,$ K in angle-resolved photoemission spectra of the compound Sr$_2$IrO$_4$, not showing superconductivity down to low $T$.