Robust orbital diamagnetism of correlated Dirac fermions in chiral Ising universality class

Abstract

We study orbital diamagnetism at zero temperature in $(2+1)$-dimensional Dirac fermions with a short-range interaction which exhibits a quantum phase transition to a charge density wave (CDW) phase. We introduce orbital magnetic fields into spinless Dirac fermions on the $\pi$-flux square lattice, and analyze them by using infinite density matrix renormalization group. It is found that the diamagnetism remains intact in the Dirac semimetal regime as a result of a non-trivial competition between the enhanced Fermi velocity and magnetic-field-induced mass gap, while it is monotonically suppressed in the CDW regime. Around the quantum critical point (QCP) of the CDW phase transition, we find a scaling behavior of the diamagnetism characteristic of the chiral Ising universality class. This defines a universal behavior of orbital diamagnetism in correlated Dirac fermions around a QCP, and therefore the robust diamagnetism in the semimetal regime is a universal property of Dirac systems whose criticality belongs to the chiral Ising universality class. The scaling behavior may also be regarded as a quantum, magnetic analogue of the critical Casimir effect which has been widely studied for classical phase transitions.