Exact analytical spectrum, eigenstates, and quantum geometry of the quarter-flux Harper-Hofstadter model

Abstract

Quantum geometry has emerged as a guiding principle across atomic and condensed-matter physics, shaping the topological responses of Bloch bands and the stability of the correlated phases they host. Beyond two-band models, however, closed-form expressions for both the spectrum and the quantum geometry are rare. Here we provide such expressions for a paradigmatic four-band model that has recently been realized experimentally with ultracold atoms, photons and in superconducting circuits: the Harper-Hofstadter model at quarter flux, describing charged particles on a two-dimensional square lattice subjected to a uniform magnetic field. We achieve this by first showing that the model possesses a sublattice symmetry, which renders its Bloch Hamiltonian anti-block-diagonal allowing us to derive the spectrum and the eigenstates analytically. From that we also obtain closed-form expressions for the full quantum geometric tensor (QGT), including both the Berry curvature and the quantum metric, for all the bands of the model. For this purpose we first derive a general expression for the QGT for sublattice-symmetric systems in terms of contributions from the individual sublattice sectors. Finally, we evaluate fractional-Chern-insulator stability criteria analytically and quantify the lowest band of the quarter-flux Harper-Hofstadter model to be a nearly ideal Chern band.