Sublattice Interference promotes Pair Density Wave order in Kagome Metals

Abstract

Motivated by the observation of a pair density wave (PDW) in the kagome metal CsV${}_3$Sb${}_5$, we consider the fate of electrons near a p-type van Hove singularity (vHS) in the presence of local repulsive interactions. We study the effect of such interactions on Fermi surface "patches" at the vHS. We show how a feature unique to the Kagome lattice known as sublattice interference crucially affects the form of the interactions among the patches. The renormalization group (RG) flow of such interactions results in a regime where the nearest neighbor interaction $V$ exceed the onsite repulsion $U$. We identify this condition as being favorable for the formation of charge-density-wave (CDW) and PDW orders. In the weak coupling limit, we find a complex CDW order as the leading instability, which breaks time reversal symmetry. Beyond RG, we perform a Hartree-Fock study to a $V$-only model and find the pair-density-wave order indeed sets in at some intermediate coupling.