Enhanced superconductivity and various edge modes in modulated t-J chains

We numerically investigate the ground state of the extended t-J Hamiltonian with periodic local modulations in one dimension by using the density-matrix renormalization group method. Examining charge and spin excitation gaps, as well as the pair binding energy, with extrapolated results to the thermodynamic limit, we obtain a rich ground-state phase diagram consisting of the metallic state, the superconducting state, the phase separation, and insulating states at commensurate fillings. Compared to the homogeneous one-dimensional (1D) t-J model, the superconductivity is greatly enhanced and stabilized by the flat-band structure. This superconducting state in periodically modulated chains shares similar properties with ladder systems: significant negative pair binding energy occurs, and the singlet-pairing correlation function dominates with the algebraic decay while the single-particle Green's function and spin correlation function decay exponentially. On the other hand, the superlattice structure leads to nontrivial topological nature in insulating states, characterized by different integer Chern numbers at different fillings. Due to the interplay among the topology, the interaction, and the 1D confinement, gapless edge modes show strong spin-charge separation and in different regions can relate to different collective modes, which are the charge of a single fermion, the magnon, and the singlet pair. We also find two interaction-driven topological transitions: (i) at particle filling rho = 1/2, the low-energy edge excitations change from the magnon to singlet pair, accompanied with pair formation in bulk; and (ii) at rho = 3/4, while the gapless edge mode is always the charge of a single fermion, there is a gap-closing point and a pi-phase shift in the quasiparticle spectrum.