Phases and exotic phase transitions of a two-dimensional Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model

The authors study here a Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model on a square lattice by auxiliary-field quantum Monte Carlo. A novel approach allows analytical integration over the phonons, considerably reducing autocorrelation times and allowing investigation of new regions of the phase diagram. By varying the strength of the direct hopping at the O(4) symmetric point, they discover novel phases in this textbook model. In particular, for small values of the direct hopping, they observe emergent orthogonal Dirac fermions, with an exotic quantum phase transition akin to deconfined quantum criticality.