Quantum geometric bound for saturated ferromagnetism

Abstract

Despite its abundance in nature, predicting the occurrence of ferromagnetism in the ground state is possible only under very limited conditions such as in a flat band system with repulsive interaction or in a band with a single hole under infinitely large Coulomb repulsion, etc. Here, we propose a general condition to achieve saturated ferromagnetism based on the quantum geometry of electronic wave functions in itinerant electron systems. By analyzing the spin excitations of multi-band repulsive Hubbard models with an integer band filling, relevant to either ferromagnetic insulators or semimetals, we show that quantum geometry stabilizes the Goldstone mode in the strongly correlated limit. Our theory indicates the stability of ferromagnetism in a large class of insulators and semimetals other than the previously studied flat band systems and their variants. Moreover, we rigorously prove that saturated ferromagnetism is forbidden in any system with trivial quantum geometry, which includes every half-filled system. We believe that our findings reveal a profound connection between quantum geometry and ferromagnetism, which can be extended to various symmetry-broken ground states in itinerant electronic systems.