Parton phases in the mixed-dimensional t-Jz model

The idea that strongly correlated electrons may host emergent partons - the analogues of quarks in high-energy physics - which determine the many-body phase diagram is decades old, but experimentally it is challenging to find direct signatures of this scenario. In a recent theory paper, we demonstrate for a strongly simplified toy model that this scenario can in principle happen. We study a mixed-dimensional version of the doped Ising antiferromagnet and confirm by quantum Monte Carlo simulations the phases expected from a parton picture: a confined meson gas, a deconfined chargon gas, and stripes.

Our theoretical predictions are relevant to ultracold atom experiments, where our model can be directly implemented. In particular, we predict critical temperatures for stripe formation on the order of the Ising coupling: this temperature should be readily accessible in current experiments and opens the door to further studies of stripes in doped Hubbard models.