Orbital magnetization and magnetic susceptibility of interacting electrons

Abstract

We present a rigorous derivation of the orbital magnetization for interacting electrons within the self-consistent Hartree-Fock approximation. Our method also allows us to derive formulas for the orbital magnetic susceptibility. The results are expressed entirely in terms of the self-consistent wavefunctions and the Hartree-Fock energy spectrum at zero magnetic field. We find that the formula for the orbital magnetization is the same as in the non-interacting case, provided that the Hamiltonian and Bloch wave functions are replaced by their Hartree-Fock counterparts. By contrast, the orbital magnetic susceptibility contains an additional interaction-induced contribution that cannot be obtained by such a replacement. We test the formulas on an interacting Rashba model, finding an agreement with calculations performed at a small but non-zero external magnetic field.