Minimal Models for Altermagnetism

Abstract: Altermagnets feature vanishing net magnetization, like antiferromagnets, but exhibit time-reversal symmetry breaking and momentum-dependent spin-split band structures. Motivated by the prevalence of altermagnetic materials with non-symmorphic symmetry-dictated band degeneracies, we provide realistic minimal models for altermagnetism by constructing tight-binding models for nonsymmorphic space groups with a sublattice defined by two magnetic atoms. These models can be applied to monoclinic, orthorhombic, tetragonal, rhombohedral, hexagonal, and cubic materials and can describe d-wave, g-wave, and i-wave altermagnetism. By examining the altermagnetic susceptibility and mean field instabilities within a Hubbard model we reveal that these models have altermagnetic ground states and yield a Berry curvature that is linear in the spin-orbit coupling. We apply our models to RuO$_2$, MnF$_2$, FeSb$_2$, $\kappa$-Cl, CrSb, and MnTe.