Topological hard-core bosons on the honeycomb lattice

This paper presents a connection between the topological properties of hardcore bosons and that of magnons in quantum spin magnets. We utilize the Haldane-like hardcore bosons on the honeycomb lattice as an example. We show that this system maps to a spin-$1/2$ quantum XY model with a next-nearest-neighbour Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction. We obtain the magnon excitations of the quantum spin model and compute the edge states, Berry curvature, thermal and spin Nernst conductivities. Due to the mapping from spin variables to bosons, the hardcore bosons possess the same nontrivial topological properties as those in quantum spin system. These results are important in the study of magnetic excitations in quantum magnets and they are also useful for understanding the control of ultracold bosonic quantum gases in honeycomb optical lattices, which is experimentally accessible.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author