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# Charge Density Waves and Bond Order Waves in a quarter filled extended Hubbard ladder

## I Introduction

Charge ordering is a general phenomenon in condensed matter physics that has been recently observed in a variety of compounds including rare earth manganitescheong\_mang ; mori\_mang , quasi-one-dimensional $`(\mathrm{TMTTF})_2\mathrm{X}`$ conductorsmonceau\_co\_1d , cuprate or nickelate materialstranquada\_nick ; tranquada\_cup . A very particular form of charge order in these latter materials is the formation of charge stripes, that are domain walls between hole rich and hole poor regions. From the theoretical point of view, charge ordering is a crystallization of the electron liquid which occurs when long-range Coulomb repulsionwigner  dominates over kinetic energy. In one dimension, charge ordering and more generally metal-insulator transitions can be studied in great details due to the existence of powerful analyticalemery\_revue\_1d ; solyom\_revue\_1d ; schulz\_houches\_revue  and numericalwhite\_dmrg\_letter  methods. In the case of a one-dimensional system, the simplest modelhubbard\_wigner  of interacting electrons that allows for charge ordering is the Hubbard model extended with an additional nearest-neighbor Coulomb interaction $`V`$. Studies of the metal insulator transition in one dimension show that charge ordered or Mott insulating states can form at commensurate fillings for sufficiently strong repulsionschulz\_mott\_revue ; giamarchi\_mott\_shortrev . In relation with organic compounds, the quarter-filled extended Hubbard model on a single chain has been studied in detailstsuchiizu\_qf1d . As a first step towards understanding charge ordering and stripe formation in strongly correlated electron models, numerical studies of coupled chain systems at commensurate fillings poilblanc\_2ch ; white\_stripes\_tj ; bonca\_3leg ; tohyama\_4leg ; white\_ladder\_friedel  (ladders) have also been performed. Half filled ladder systems are Mott insulators that display a spin gap analogous to the Haldane gap in spin-1 chainshaldane\_gap  when made of an even number of coupled chains. Ladder models are not only of theoretical interest. Quite a few half-filled ladder systems have been synthesized both organic and inorganic and the spin gap behavior has been characterized in great details takano\_spingap ; chaboussant\_cuhpcl ; iwase\_cav2o5 ; rovira\_dtttf ; watson\_bpcb ; landee\_ladder . Away from half-filling and more generally commensurate filling, ladders are expected to be conducting. The persistence of the spin gap away from half-filling has been proposed to give rise to a paring mechanism and to superconductivityrice\_srcuo . This suggestion has given rise to intense theoretical studies both analyticalfabrizio\_2ch\_rg ; nagaosa\_2ch ; schulz\_2chains ; balents\_2ch  and numerical fabrizio\_q1d ; poilblanc\_2ch\_mc ; troyer\_2ch\_tj ; hayward\_2chain\_2 ; noack\_dmrg\_2ch  that confirmed the presence of superconducting correlations at incommensurate fillings. Experimentally, the two-leg ladder compound $`\mathrm{Sr}_{14}\mathrm{Cu}_{24}\mathrm{O}_{41}`$uchara\_SrCaCuO  can be doped away from half filling and under pressure displays a superconducting transition. Recently, the compound $`\alpha ^{}\mathrm{NaV}_2\mathrm{O}_5`$, initially identified as an inorganic spin Peierls compoundisobe\_nav2o5 , was shown to be a quarter-filled ladderboer ; smolinski\_nav2o5 ; mostovoy\_nav2o5 ; seo\_nav2o5 , that undergoes a transition at $`T_c=34K`$ corresponding to the formation of a charge ordered state with a zig-zag charge pattern and the opening of a spin gapohama\_nav2o5 ; fagot-revurat\_nav2o5 ; grenier\_nav2o5 ; sawa\_nav2o5 . This has prompted numerical studies of quarter-filled extended Hubbard two-leg ladder systemsvojta\_qfl\_short ; vojta\_qfl  that exhibit the formation of a zig-zag charge ordered state at large repulsion. Interestingly, the charge ordered state of the two-leg ladder at quarter filling presents a spin gap in contrast to the single chain. Analytic studies of insulating states on a two-leg ladder have been mostly confined to the half-filled caselin\_so8 ; konik\_ff\_so8 ; wu\_2leg\_firstorder ; tsuchiizu\_2leg\_firstorder  or to mean fieldseo\_nav2o5 ; amasaki\_2ch\_zigzag  approximations and strong coupling expansionsmostovoy\_nav2o5 ; horsch\_nav2o5 ; sa\_nav2o5  in the quarter-filled case. In the present paper we analyze the phase diagram of the quarter-filled two-leg Hubbard ladder with interchain Coulomb repulsion $`V_{}`$ and exchange coupling $`J_{}`$, by using bosonization and renormalization group (RG) methods. Focusing on the regime of strong repulsion, we discuss charge orders and the elementary excitations of the insulating phase. Due to the presence of a spin gap, the competing ground states are bond-order wave states (BOW) and charge density wave states (CDW). We analyze the phase transitions between these states using a perturbative renormalization group approach and a mapping of spin excitations to a Majorana fermion theory. The plan of the paper is the following. In Sec. II we introduce the model and discuss the physics of two simple limits, the large on-site repulsion and the large interchain exchange limit. In Sec. III we give the details of the bosonization treatment and of the derivation of the renormalization group (RG) equations. In Sec. IV we introduce the order parameters of the insulating phases and the describe the charge ordered ground states obtained by the values of the phase fields that minimize the energy. In Sec. V we describe the elementary charge and spin excitations of each ground state and discuss the analogy with Kondo-Heisenberg-Hubbard chain in a particular case. In Sec. VI we discuss the nature of the transitions among the various phases in the antisymmetric charge sector and the spin sector. This is partially accomplished by a mapping to a theory of Majorana fermions and by a mapping to an effective quantum Ising model in the limit of strong interchain repulsion. Finally, we discuss the results of the phase diagram obtained by the numerical integration of the RG equations. We also briefly discuss the commensurate-incommensurate transitions produced by the application of a magnetic field or by doping away from quarter-filling.

## II Hamiltonian and some simple limits

We consider the quarter-filled extended Hubbard model on a two leg ladder. The Hamiltonian reads:

$`H`$ $`=`$ $`t{\displaystyle \underset{i,p,\sigma }{}}(c_{i+1,p,\sigma }^{}c_{i,p,\sigma }+c_{i,p,\sigma }^{}c_{i+1,p,\sigma })t_{}{\displaystyle \underset{i,\sigma }{}}(c_{i,2,\sigma }^{}c_{i,1,\sigma }+\text{H.c.})`$ (1)
$`+U{\displaystyle \underset{i,p}{}}n_{i,p,}n_{i,p,}+V_{}{\displaystyle \underset{i,p}{}}n_{i,p}n_{i+1,p}+V_{}{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}n_{i,1}n_{i,2},`$
where $`n_{i,p,\sigma }=c_{i,p,\sigma }^{}c_{i,p,\sigma }`$, $`n_{i,p}=n_{i,p,}+n_{i,p,}`$, $`i`$ is the site index, $`p`$ the chain index, $`t`$ the intrachain hopping, $`t_{}`$ the interchain hopping, $`U`$ the on-site repulsion, $`V_{}`$ the nearest-neighbor repulsion, and $`V_{}`$ the interchain repulsion.

Since we will be focusing on the case of very strongly repulsive interactions, the single-particle interchain hopping term $`t_{}`$ will be irrelevant in this regime. However, it is well known that even when $`t_{}`$ is irrelevant, it generates an interchain exchange term in the Hamiltonianbrazovskii\_transhop ; schulz\_2chains . Thus, the Hamiltonian (1) should also include an interchain exchange term,

$$H_{\text{exch.}}=J_{}\underset{i}{}\stackrel{}{S}_{i,1}S_{i,2},$$
(2)
where $`S_{i,p}=c_{i,p,\alpha }^{}\stackrel{}{\sigma }_{\alpha ,\beta }c_{i,p,\beta }`$. In the limit of $`t_{}U`$, $`J_{}`$ is estimated to second order perturbation theory in $`t_{}/U`$ as $`J_{}t_{}^2/U`$. In the following, we will consider the Hamiltonian (1) completed by the term (2) and neglect altogether the interchain hopping $`t_{}`$. In fact, another model of interest is the two leg t-J ladder at quarter filling. The Hamiltonian of this model reads:

$`H`$ $`=`$ $`t{\displaystyle \underset{i,p,\sigma }{}}𝒫(c_{i+1,p,\sigma }^{}c_{i,p,\sigma }+c_{i,p,\sigma }^{}c_{i+1,p,\sigma })𝒫t_{}{\displaystyle \underset{i,\sigma }{}}𝒫(c_{i,2,\sigma }^{}c_{i,1,\sigma }+\text{H.c.})𝒫`$ (3)
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{i,p}{}}(J_{}\stackrel{}{S}_{i,p}\stackrel{}{S}_{i,p+1}+V_{}n_{i,p}n_{i+1,p})+{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}J_{}\stackrel{}{S}_{i,1}\stackrel{}{S}_{i,2}+V_{}{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}n_{i,1}n_{i,2},`$
where $`𝒫`$ is an operator that projects onto singly occupied statestsunegutsu\_2ch ; white\_ladder\_friedel . We will thus treat $`J_{}`$ as a parameter independent of $`t,U`$ in (1) in order to be able to discuss also results relevant to the two-leg $`tJ`$ ladder model. In the rest of the present section, we will illustrate two simple limiting cases of the problem defined by the Hamiltonian (1)– (2) which display insulating charge ordered ground states.

### II.1 large on-site repulsion

Let us begin by considering the limit $`U\mathrm{}`$ in the Hamiltonian (1)–(2). In this limit, it is not possible to put two fermions on the same site even when they have opposite spins and from the point of view of charge excitations, the system behaves as if it was made of spinless fermions with a Fermi wavevector $`k_F^{}`$ twice the one of the spinful fermions at $`U=0`$ogata\_inf . The original spinful fermions system being quarter-filled, the spinless fermions system is half-filled and its effective Hamiltonian reads:

$`H=t{\displaystyle \underset{i,p}{}}(a_{i+1,p}^{}a_{i,p}+a_{i,p}^{}a_{i+1,p})+V_{}{\displaystyle \underset{i,p}{}}n_{i,p}n_{i+1,p}+V_{}{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}n_{i,1}n_{i,2},`$ (4)
where now $`n_{i,p}=a_{i,p}^{}a_{i,p}`$. The bosonization of the Hamiltonian (4) is straightforward. The relevant formulas can be found for instance in schulz\_houches\_revue . We obtain the following bosonized Hamiltonian:

$`H={\displaystyle \underset{r=1,2}{}}\{{\displaystyle }{\displaystyle \frac{dx}{2\pi }}[uK(\pi \mathrm{\Pi }_r)^2+{\displaystyle \frac{u}{K}}(_x\varphi _r)^2]++{\displaystyle \frac{2g}{(2\pi a)^2}}{\displaystyle }dx\mathrm{cos}4\varphi _r\}{\displaystyle \frac{V_{}a}{(\pi a)^2}}{\displaystyle }dx\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _1\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _2+{\displaystyle \frac{V_{}a}{\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle }dx_x\varphi _1_x\varphi _2,`$ (5)
where $`\mathrm{cos}4\varphi _{1,2}`$ represent the intrachain Umklapp interactions. Let us first consider the case in which these processes are irrelevant ($`V_{}=0`$). This case corresponds to $`|V_{}|<2t`$. The Hamiltonian (4) has then a Luttinger liquid ground state for $`V_{}=0`$, and the renormalized Luttinger exponent $`K^{}`$ can be obtained from studies of the $`tV`$ model haldane\_xxzchain  as:

$`K^{}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\frac{2}{\pi }\mathrm{arccos}\left(\frac{V_{}}{2t}\right)}}.`$ (6)
In the Luttinger liquid regime, we can set $`g=0`$ and replace $`K`$ by $`K^{}`$ in the Hamiltonian (5) provided $`V_{}`$ is sufficiently small. The Hamiltonian (5), is then decoupled by introducing the fields $`\varphi _\pm =(\varphi _1\pm \varphi _2)/\sqrt{2}`$ leading to the following Hamiltonian:

$`H=H_++H_{},`$
$`H_r={\displaystyle \frac{dx}{2\pi }\left[u_rK_r(\pi \mathrm{\Pi }_r)^2+\frac{u_r}{K_r}(_x\varphi _r)^2\right]}+{\displaystyle \frac{2V_{}a}{(2\pi a)^2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{8}\varphi _r},`$ (7)
where $`r=\pm `$ and:

$`u_r^2=u^2\left(1+r{\displaystyle \frac{KV_{}a}{\pi u}}\right)`$
$`K_r^2=K^2\left(1+r{\displaystyle \frac{KV_{}a}{\pi u}}\right)^1`$ (8)
For $`K_r<1`$, the term $`\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{8}\varphi _r`$ is relevant and opens a gap in the charge modes. If $`V_{}u/a`$, this implies that the gap opens as soon as $`K^{}<1`$, whereas the intrachain Umklapp processes become relevant only for $`K^{}=1/2`$. We thus see that for a wide range of $`0<V_{}<2t`$, although intrachain repulsion $`V_{}`$ alone is too weak to open a charge gap by itself, the existence of a nonzero interchain repulsion is sufficient to induce an insulating ground state. This is consistent with the numerical observation of a charge gap state forming for $`V_{}>0`$ and $`t_{}<t`$ at large $`U`$ in Ref. vojta\_qfl . In that insulating state, the charge gap should vary as $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{\rho +}u/a(V_{}a/u)^{1/(2K_+)}`$.

We note from (6) that $`K^{}=1`$ corresponds to $`V_{}=0`$, i.e. the Hamiltonian (II.1) is identical to the bosonized Hamiltonian of the half-filled 1D Hubbard chain, $`\varphi _+`$ playing the role of $`\varphi _\rho `$, and $`\varphi _{}`$ playing the role of $`\varphi _\sigma `$. As a result, although the total charge mode is gapful, the antisymmetric charge mode remains gapless. This insulating state presents the same $`SU(2)\times SU(2)SO(4)`$ symmetry as the Hubbard model. In particular, the gapped charge excitations behave like those of the half-filled Hubbard model and the charge gap is $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{\rho +}u/a\mathrm{exp}(Cu/(V_{}a))`$.

To determine the long range order that is realized in the ground state, we need to fix the values of $`\varphi _{1,2}`$ that minimize the classical ground state energy, i. e. require that $`\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _1\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _2`$ is negative. Since the density of the spinless fermions reads:

$`\rho _p(x)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi }}_x\varphi _p(x)+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi a}}\mathrm{cos}(2\varphi _p2k_F^{}x),`$ (9)
where $`p=1,2`$ is the chain index, this leads to two out of phase charge density waves of wavevector $`2k_F^{}=\frac{\pi }{a}`$ on chains 1 and 2, i.e. a zig-zag charge ordering. This ordering is represented on figure 1. We note that in Ref. vojta\_qfl, , it was found that the charge ordering was formed for $`U=\mathrm{}`$ only when $`V_{}>2t`$ although a charge gap was obtained for $`V_{}>0`$. The reason for this discrepancy in Ref. vojta\_qfl,  could be the presence of $`t/t_{}1`$. Turning to transport properties, from (9) the long wavelength density on chain $`p`$ is $`\rho _p(x)=\frac{1}{\pi }_x\varphi _p`$. By considering the topological charge of the sine-Gordon models (II.1), one easily obtains that a charge solitons carries the electrical charge $`\pm e`$. The a.c. electrical conductivity of this system can be obtained from the form factor expansion jeckelmann\_hubbard1d ; controzzi\_mott .

When $`V_{}>2t`$, the interchain Umklapp processes become relevant and induce the formation of charge density waves on each chainshankar\_spinless\_conductivite . The effect of $`V_{}`$ is to lock the respective phases of these charge density waves into a zig-zag pattern. Zig-zag charge ordering is thus ubiquitous in the limit $`U=\mathrm{}`$.

### II.2 large interchain exchange

In the limit in which $`J_{}\mathrm{}`$ in (1)– (2) or in (3), it is again possible to derive a simplified Hamiltonian in a low-energy subspace. Namely, one can restrict to a subspace in which fermions form spin singlet pairs on the same rung. These pairs can then be treated as hardcore bosonstroyer\_2ch\_tj  moving on a single chain and carrying a charge $`2e`$. For a quarter filled fermion system, the effective boson system is at half-filling. The effective bosonic Hamiltonian reads:

$`H=\stackrel{~}{t}{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}(b_i^{}b_{i+1}+\text{H. c.})+\stackrel{~}{V}{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}n_in_{i+1},`$ (10)
where $`b_i=_\sigma \sigma c_{i,1,\sigma }c_{i,2,\sigma }`$, annihilates a singlet pair on site $`i`$. In the limit $`J_{}t`$, the coefficients $`\stackrel{~}{t},\stackrel{~}{V}`$ can be obtain from second order perturbation theory as $`\stackrel{~}{t}=t^2/J_{}`$, $`\stackrel{~}{V}=2t^2/J_{}+V_{}`$. The Hamiltonian (10) is solved exactly by the Bethe Ansatzshankar\_spinless\_conductivite , and its spectrum has a gap for $`V_{}>0`$. A bosonization descriptionblack\_equ ; nijs\_equivalence ; shankar\_spinless\_conductivite  of the low energy excitations of this system gives:

$$H=\frac{dx}{2\pi }\left[uK(\pi \mathrm{\Pi }_b)^2+\frac{u}{K}(_x\varphi _b)^2\right]\frac{2\mathrm{\Delta }}{(2\pi a)^2}𝑑x\mathrm{cos}4\varphi _b,$$
(11)
where the mode $`\varphi _b`$ describes the charge excitations of the hardcore boson system. The electrical charge density is given by:

$$\rho _e(x)=\frac{2e}{\pi }_x\varphi _b+2e\frac{e^{i\pi \frac{x}{a}}}{\pi a}\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _b$$
(12)
In the gapped regime, $`\varphi _b=0`$, and the ground state of this system is formed of singlet pairs in a charge ordered state as represented on Fig. 7. We therefore see that in the regime of strong interaction, both $`J_{}`$ and $`V_{}`$ will induce a charge ordering. However, $`J_{}`$ favors a phase with stripes formed along the rungs of the system, whereas $`V_{}`$ favors a zig-zag charge ordering. As a result, the competition between $`J_{}`$ and $`V_{}`$ induces a frustration in the system that can lead to a variety of charge ordering patterns.

## III Bosonization description

In the present section, we derive a bosonized representation of the Hamiltonian (1)–(2) in the limit $`J_{},V_{}t`$. For $`J_{}=V_{}=0`$, the chains are decoupled, and the Hamiltonian describing their low energy, long wavelength excitations reads:

$`H={\displaystyle \underset{p=1,2}{}}H_{\rho ,p}+H_{\sigma ,p}`$ (13)
$`H_{\rho ,p}={\displaystyle 𝑑x\left[u_\rho K_\rho (\pi \mathrm{\Pi }_{\rho ,p})^2+\frac{u_\rho }{K_\rho }(_x\varphi _{\rho ,p})^2\right]}`$ (14)
$`H_{\sigma ,p}={\displaystyle 𝑑x\left[u_\sigma K_\sigma (\pi \mathrm{\Pi }_{\sigma ,p})^2+\frac{u_\sigma }{K_\sigma }(_x\varphi _{\sigma ,p})^2\right]}`$ (15)
where the fields satisfy to canonical commutation relations $`[\varphi _{\nu ,p}(x),\mathrm{\Pi }_{\nu ^{},p^{}}(x^{})]=i\delta _{\nu ,\nu ^{}}\delta _{p,p^{}}\delta (xx^{})`$, ($`\nu =\rho ,\sigma `$). Since we do not assume $`U,V_{}t`$, we use the renormalized values of $`u_\rho ,K_\rho ,u_\sigma ,K_\sigma `$ in the bosonized Hamiltonian of the decoupled chains (14)-(15). Spin rotational invariance imposes the renormalized value of $`K_\sigma =1`$. The renormalized values of the remaining quantities can be obtained from the Bethe Ansatzschulz\_hubbard\_exact ; kawakami\_tj ; kawakami\_hubbard ; frahm\_confinv  for the Hubbard model or the t-J model at the supersymmetric point, or from numerical calculations in the case of a non-integrable modelmila\_zotos ; sano\_extended\_hubbard\_1d ; nakamura\_tJ .

### III.1 derivation of interchain coupling

In Sec. II.1 we have seen that the $`4k_F`$ harmonics in the fermion density play a crucial role for $`U/t1`$. The expression of the $`4k_F`$ harmonics in terms of the boson fields can be obtained from Refs. haldane\_bosons, ; schulz\_wigner\_1d, :

$`\rho _r(x)={\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{2}}{\pi }}_x\varphi _{\rho _r}+{\displaystyle \frac{e^{i(\sqrt{2}\varphi _{\rho _r}2k_Fx)}}{\pi a}}\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{2}\varphi _{\sigma _r}(x)+{\displaystyle \frac{C}{\pi a}}e^{i2(\sqrt{2}\varphi _{\rho _r}2k_Fx)},`$ (16)
where $`r=1,2`$ and $`k_F=\frac{\pi }{4a}`$. For $`U\mathrm{}`$, we recover the bosonized expression (9) of the density of spinless fermions with $`k_F^{}=2k_F`$, $`\varphi =\sqrt{2}\varphi _\rho `$ and $`K=2K_\rho `$. Using the expression (16) of the fermion density, we obtain the bosonized expression of the interchain repulsion $`V_{}`$:

$`H_\text{V}_{}=V_{}a{\displaystyle 𝑑x\left[\frac{2}{\pi ^2}_x\varphi _{\rho _1}_x\varphi _{\rho _2}+\frac{2}{(\pi a)^2}\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{2}(\varphi _{\rho _1}\varphi _{\rho _2})\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{2}\varphi _{\sigma _1}\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{2}\varphi _{\sigma _2}+\frac{C^2}{(\pi a)^2}\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{8}\varphi _{\rho _1}\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{8}\varphi _{\rho _2}\right]}.`$ (17)
To obtain the bosonized expression of the spin exchange interaction, we need the spin density operators:

$`S_p^x(x)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi a}}\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{2}\theta _{\sigma ,p}(x)\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{2}\varphi _{\sigma ,p}(x)+{\displaystyle \frac{e^{i\sqrt{2}\varphi _{\rho ,p}2k_Fx}}{2\pi a}}\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{2}\theta _{\sigma ,p}(x),`$ (18)
$`S_p^y(x)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi a}}\mathrm{sin}\sqrt{2}\theta _{\sigma ,p}(x)\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{2}\varphi _{\sigma ,p}(x)+{\displaystyle \frac{e^{i\sqrt{2}\varphi _{\rho ,p}2k_Fx}}{2\pi a}}\mathrm{sin}\sqrt{2}\theta _{\sigma ,p}(x),`$ (19)
$`S_p^z(x)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi \sqrt{2}}}_x\varphi _{\sigma ,p}+{\displaystyle \frac{e^{i\sqrt{2}\varphi _{\rho ,p}2k_Fx}}{2\pi a}}\mathrm{sin}\sqrt{2}\varphi _{\sigma ,p}(x),`$ (20)
where $`\theta _{\nu ,p}=\pi ^x\mathrm{\Pi }_{\nu ,p}(x^{})𝑑x^{}`$. Since the terms coming from the $`4k_F`$ harmonics are less relevant than those produced by the $`2k_F`$ harmonics, in Eqs. (18)–(20) we have altogether neglected the $`4k_F`$ harmonics, whose expression can be found in the Appendix B. From the bosonized expression of the spin densities, we obtain the exchange interaction as:

$`H_\text{J}_{}`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{J_{}}{2\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x_x\varphi _{\sigma ,1}_x\varphi _{\sigma ,2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{J_{}}{2(\pi a)^2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{2}(\theta _{\sigma ,1}\theta _{\sigma ,2})\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{2}(\varphi _{\sigma ,1}+\varphi _{\sigma ,2})}`$ (21)
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{J_{}}{(2\pi a)^2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{2}(\varphi _{\rho ,1}\varphi _{\rho ,2})\left[2\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{2}(\theta _{\sigma ,1}\theta _{\sigma ,2})+\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{2}(\varphi _{\sigma ,1}\varphi _{\sigma ,2})\sqrt{2}(\varphi _{\sigma ,1}+\varphi _{\sigma ,2})\right]}.`$
The total interchain interaction Hamiltonian $`H_{}=H_\text{V}_{}+H_\text{J}_{}`$, is more conveniently written by introducing the new canonically conjugate fieldskhveshenko\_2chain  $`\varphi _{\nu ,\pm }=(\varphi _{\nu ,1}\pm \varphi _{\nu ,2})/\sqrt{2}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{\nu ,\pm }=(\mathrm{\Pi }_{\nu ,1}\pm \mathrm{\Pi }_{\nu ,2})/\sqrt{2}`$, as:

$`H_{}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{(4V_{}+J_{})a}{(2\pi a)^2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _\rho \mathrm{cos}2\varphi _\sigma }+{\displaystyle \frac{(4V_{}J_{})a}{(2\pi a)^2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _\rho \mathrm{cos}2\varphi _{\sigma +}}+{\displaystyle \frac{2J_{}a}{(2\pi a)^2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _\rho \mathrm{cos}2\theta _\sigma }`$ (22)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2C^2V_{}a}{(2\pi a)^2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x(\mathrm{cos}4\varphi _\rho +\mathrm{cos}4\varphi _{\rho +})}+{\displaystyle \frac{V_{}}{\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x\left[(_x\varphi _{\rho +})^2(_x\varphi _\rho )^2\right]}+{\displaystyle \frac{J_{}}{4\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x\left[(_x\varphi _{\sigma +})^2(_x\varphi _\sigma )^2\right]}.`$
From the bosonized expression (22) of the interchain interactions and the Hamiltonians of the decoupled chains (14)-(15) we obtain the full bosonized form of the Hamiltonian (1)-(2). The total charge mode $`\varphi _{\rho +}`$ decouples from the spin and staggered charge modes. Below, we will start discussing the properties of the Hamiltonians of these modes.

### III.2 total charge Hamiltonian

The total charge excitation Hamiltonian is:

$`H_{\rho +}={\displaystyle \frac{dx}{2\pi }\left[u_{\rho +}K_{\rho +}(\pi \mathrm{\Pi }_{\rho +})^2+\frac{u_{\rho +}}{K_{\rho +}}(_x\varphi _{\rho +})^2\right]}+{\displaystyle \frac{2g_0}{(2\pi a)^2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x\mathrm{cos}4\varphi _{\rho +}},`$ (23)
where:

$`u_{\rho +}=u_\rho \left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{2K_\rho V_{}a}{\pi u_\rho }}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}`$ (24)
$`K_{\rho +}=K_\rho \left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{2K_\rho V_{}a}{\pi u_\rho }}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}`$ (25)
$`g_0=C^2V_{}`$ (26)
The expression of the interchain coupling $`g_0`$ in (23) can also be derived in perturbation theory by the approach of Ref. tsuchiizu\_qf1d,  and a sketch of such derivation can be found in the Appendix A. We note that the same sine-Gordon Hamiltonian was derived in Sec. II.1 in the limit $`U/t\mathrm{}`$, with the identification $`\varphi _+=\sqrt{2}\varphi _\rho `$, $`K=2K_\rho `$, $`K_+=2K_{\rho +}`$, and $`C=1`$. A similar Hamiltonian was also obtained in Sec. II.2 in the limit $`J_{}\mathrm{}`$. This fact indicates a continuity relation between the weak and the strong coupling regimes for the charge excitations. Finally, the Hamiltonian for the total charge mode (23) can also be recovered from a general argumentoshikawa\_plateaus ; white\_ladder\_friedel : From Eq. (16), it is easily seen that a translation by one lattice site amounts to making $`\sqrt{2}\varphi _{\rho ,n}\sqrt{2}\varphi _{\rho ,n}\pi /2`$, and thus $`\varphi _{\rho +}\varphi _{\rho +}\pi /2`$. Translation invariance of the lattice Hamiltonian requires the continuum bosonized Hamiltonian to be invariant under such transformation. The most relevant Umklapp operator compatible with this symmetry is $`\mathrm{cos}4\varphi _{\rho +}`$, and it should be the operator responsible for the opening of the gap in the charge modes at quarter-filling. As a result, in the strong coupling regime, we find a boundary between the gapped and the gapless regime given by $`K_{\rho +}=1/2`$. Concerning the intrachain Umklapp terms, they are of the form schulz\_mott\_revue ; giamarchi\_mott\_shortrev  $`\mathrm{cos}4\sqrt{2}\varphi _{1,2}`$ and become relevant only for $`K_\rho <1/4`$. Thus we can safely neglect them compared with interchain Umklapp terms. A final remark is in order concerning the sign of $`g_0`$. In appendix B, we show that the interaction in the spin sector only produces a term of the form $`\mathrm{cos}4\varphi _{\rho +}\mathrm{cos}2\theta _\sigma \mathrm{cos}2\varphi _{\sigma +}`$. This latter term is less relevant than a term of the form $`\mathrm{cos}4\varphi _{\rho +}`$, so that we can usually neglect it and assume $`g_0>0`$. However, if the spin gap in the system is large, this term cannot be neglected and contributes a correction $`\mathrm{cos}4\varphi _{\rho +}\mathrm{cos}2\theta _\sigma \mathrm{cos}2\varphi _{\sigma +}`$ to the Hamiltonian (23). This can result in a change of the sign of $`g_0`$. In that case, instead of having $`\varphi _{\rho +}=\frac{\pi }{4}`$ in the ground state, we should have instead $`\varphi _{\rho +}=0`$. In the following we will discuss both the phases with $`\varphi _{\rho +}=\frac{\pi }{4}`$ and $`\varphi _{\rho +}=0`$. The latter ones are expected to be obtained when $`J_{}V_{}`$ since we need a large spin gap to modify the sign of $`g_0`$.

### III.3 spin and charge difference Hamiltonian

From Eqs. (14)-(15) and Eq. (22), we obtain the Hamiltonian describing the interaction of spin modes $`\varphi _{\sigma \pm }`$ and interchain charge modes $`\varphi _\rho `$. Under renormalization group (RG) transformation, besides the interactions already present in the bare Hamiltonians, new interactions can be generated. Thus the Hamiltonian to consider reads:

$`\stackrel{~}{H}`$ $`=`$ $`H_\rho +H_{\sigma +}+H_\sigma ={\displaystyle \frac{dx}{2\pi }\underset{\nu \{\rho ,\sigma +,\sigma \}}{}\left[u_\nu K_\nu (\pi \mathrm{\Pi }_\nu )^2+\frac{u_\nu }{K_\nu }(_x\varphi _\nu )^2\right]}`$ (27)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2g_1}{(2\pi a)^2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _{\sigma +}\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _\sigma }+{\displaystyle \frac{2g_2}{(2\pi a)^2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _{\sigma +}\mathrm{cos}2\theta _\sigma }+{\displaystyle \frac{2g_3}{(2\pi a)^2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x\mathrm{cos}4\varphi _\rho }`$
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2g_4}{(2\pi a)^2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _\rho \mathrm{cos}2\varphi _{\sigma +}}+{\displaystyle \frac{2g_5}{(2\pi a)^2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _\rho \mathrm{cos}2\varphi _\sigma }+{\displaystyle \frac{2g_6}{(2\pi a)^2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _\rho \mathrm{cos}2\theta _\sigma },`$
where:

$`u_\rho =u_\rho \left(1{\displaystyle \frac{2V_{}K_\rho a}{\pi u_\rho }}\right)^{1/2}`$ (28)
$`u_{\sigma +}=u_\sigma \left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{J_{}a}{2\pi u_\rho }}\right)^{1/2},\text{ }u_\sigma =u_\sigma \left(1{\displaystyle \frac{J_{}a}{2\pi v_F}}\right)^{1/2},`$ (29)
$`K_\rho =K_\rho \left(1{\displaystyle \frac{2V_{}K_\rho a}{\pi u_\rho }}\right)^{1/2},`$ (30)
$`K_{\sigma +}=\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{J_{}a}{2\pi v_F}}\right)^{1/2},\text{ }K_\sigma =\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{J_{}a}{2\pi v_F}}\right)^{1/2},`$ (31)
$`g_1=0,\text{ }g_2=J_{}a,\text{ }g_3=2C^2V_{}a,`$ (32)
$`g_4=(2V_{}{\displaystyle \frac{J_{}}{2}})a,\text{ }g_5=(2V_{}+{\displaystyle \frac{J_{}}{2}})a,\text{ }g_6=J_{}a.`$ (33)
Note that in Eqs. (28), we have put $`g_1=0`$ because the intrachain spin interaction in the repulsive Hubbard model are marginally irrelevant. In full rigor, we should have added a small marginally irrelevant interaction to the Hamiltonian (15) and we would have obtained $`g_1>0`$ and slightly modified expressions of $`K_{\sigma \pm }`$. In spite of the fact that we have put $`g_1=0`$ in the initial conditions, in the following we will also discuss the case of a relevant $`g_1`$ under RG.

To study the Hamiltonian (27) RG equations can be derived. Velocity differences between the various modes can be neglected, and one can take $`u_{\sigma \pm }=u_\rho =v_F`$. Introducing $`y_i=g_i/(\pi v_F)`$ and $`K_{\sigma r}=1+y_{\sigma r}/2`$, and using the operator product expansion (OPE) methodscardy\_scaling , the RG equations read:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dl}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{K_\rho }}\right)=y_3^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{8}}(y_4^2+y_5^2+y_6^2),`$ (34)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dy_\sigma }{dl}}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}(y_6^2+y_2^2y_1^2y_5^2),`$ (35)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dy_{\sigma +}}{dl}}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}(y_1^2+y_2^2+y_4^2),`$ (36)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dy_1}{dl}}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left[(y_{\sigma +}+y_\sigma )y_1+y_4y_5\right],`$ (37)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dy_2}{dl}}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left[(y_{\sigma +}y_\sigma )y_2+y_4y_6\right],`$ (38)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dy_3}{dl}}=(24K_\rho )y_3{\displaystyle \frac{1}{8}}(y_4^2+y_5^2+y_6^2),`$ (39)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dy_4}{dl}}=(1K_\rho )y_4{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(y_{\sigma +}y_4+y_1y_5+y_2y_6+y_3y_4),`$ (40)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dy_5}{dl}}=(1K_\rho )y_5{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(y_\sigma y_5+y_3y_5+y_1y_4),`$ (41)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dy_6}{dl}}=(1K_\rho )y_6+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(y_\sigma y_6y_3y_6y_2y_4).`$ (42)
We see from these equations that although $`y_1`$ is initially zero, it becomes non-zero under the RG flow. The fact that the problem under consideration has $`SU(2)`$ spin rotational invariance leads to a simplification of the RG equations (34). The initial conditions (28) lead to the following relations $`l`$:

$`y_{\sigma +}(l)+y_\sigma (l)=y_1(l),`$ (43)
$`y_\sigma (l)y_{\sigma +}(l)=y_2(l),`$ (44)
$`y_5(l)y_4(l)=y_6(l).`$ (45)
These conditions ensure the $`SU(2)`$ symmetry of the RG flow and reduce the flow from a curve in a nine-dimensional space to a curve in a six-dimensional hyperplane. The simplified RG equations now reads:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dl}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{K_\rho }}\right)=y_3^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}(y_4^2+y_6^2+y_4y_6)`$ (46)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dy_1}{dl}}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(y_1^2+y_4^2+y_4y_6)`$ (47)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dy_2}{dl}}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(y_2^2y_4y_6)`$ (48)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dy_3}{dl}}=(24K_\rho )y_3{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}(y_4^2+y_6^2+y_4y_6)`$ (49)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dy_4}{dl}}=(1K_\rho )y_4{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}(3y_1y_4y_2y_4+2y_2y_6+2y_1y_6+2y_3y_4)`$ (50)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dy_6}{dl}}=(1K_\rho )y_6+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}(y_1y_6+y_2y_62y_3y_62y_2y_4).`$ (51)
The flow of these equations will be discussed in Sec. VI. Here, we want to discuss briefly the possible fixed points within a semiclassical argument, i.e. by considering the expectation values of the phase fields that minimize the classical ground state energy. By looking at the possible classical minima, we can distinguish two regimes. In the first regime, $`\varphi _\rho =0,\frac{\pi }{2}`$ and $`\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _\rho 0`$. This case is similar to that obtained in ladders at incommensurate fillingkhveshenko\_2chain ; schulz\_2chains ; balents\_2ch . In this regime the relevance of the terms $`g_{4,5,6}`$ is responsible for the presence of the spin gap. In the second regime, $`\varphi _\rho =\pm \frac{\pi }{4}`$, so that $`\mathrm{cos}4\varphi _\rho 0`$, and $`\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _\rho =0`$. This regime corresponds to $`g_3`$ being the dominant interaction, and $`g_{4,5,6}`$ being less relevant interactions. This case is specific of the quarter-filled ladder, and corresponds in the limit $`U=\mathrm{}`$ of Sec. II.1 to the formation of the gap in $`\varphi _{}`$. We note that in the present regime, spin gaps can also be generated by the $`g_{1,2}`$ terms. When $`g_1`$ is the relevant interaction, the corresponding bosonized expression can be rewritten as $`g_1(\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{8}\varphi _1+\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{8}\varphi _2)`$, so that the spin gaps correspond to two independent intrachain spin gaps. We also note that in order to preserve spin rotational invariance, we need to have $`g_1<0`$ in that case.

It is possible to give a roughly estimate of the parameters region where each regime dominate by looking at the scaling dimensions of the operators. The operator $`\mathrm{cos}4\varphi _\rho `$ has scaling dimension $`4K_\rho `$ so that it is relevant for $`K_\rho <1/2`$. The operators $`\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _\rho \mathrm{cos}2\varphi _\sigma `$, $`\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _\rho \mathrm{cos}2\varphi _{\sigma +}`$, $`\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _\rho \mathrm{cos}2\theta _\sigma `$ have respective scaling dimensions $`K_\rho +K_\sigma `$, $`K_\rho +K_{\sigma +}`$, $`K_\rho +1/K_\sigma `$. Taking into account the spin rotational symmetry, this implies that these operators have all the dimension $`K_\rho +1`$ and become relevant for $`K_\rho <1`$. The operator $`\mathrm{cos}4\varphi _\rho `$ becomes the most relevant operator when $`4K_\rho <1+K_\rho `$, i. e. for $`K_\rho <1/3`$. Therefore, we expect to have the first regime in the limit of a repulsion not too strong, $`1/3<K_\rho <1/2`$, and the second regime in the case of a stronger repulsion $`1/4<K_\rho <1/2`$.

## IV Phase diagram

In this section, we describe the various insulating phases predicted from the renormalization group equations (51). In order to describe the possible ground states in the phase diagram, we introduce first the corresponding order parameters.

### IV.1 order parameters

Since for strong repulsion the system has a gap in the spin excitations, the possible order parameters can only be bond-order waves (BOW) and charge density waves (CDW). We will denote the corresponding phases as $`(q_x,q_y)`$BOW, and $`(q_x,q_y)`$CDW where $`q_x=\pi /2`$ or $`\pi `$ and $`q_y=0,\pi `$ or $`q_y=\pm \pi /2`$ if $`q_x=\pi /2`$. The phases with a $`q_x=\pi `$ ordering have at least two-fold degenerate ground state, while the phases with a $`q_x=\frac{\pi }{2}`$ have a four-fold degenerate ground state.

On the lattice, these operators are defined as:

$`O_{CDW(\pi ,q_y)}(i)=()^i(n_{i,1}+\mathrm{cos}(q_y)n_{i,2})(q_y=0,\pi )`$ (52)
$`O_{BOW(\pi ,q_y)}(i)=()^i{\displaystyle \underset{\sigma }{}}(c_{i+1,1,\sigma }^{}c_{i+1,1,\sigma }^{}+\mathrm{cos}(q_y)c_{i+1,2,\sigma }^{}c_{i+1,2,\sigma }^{})(q_y=0,\pi )`$ (53)
$`O_{CDW(\frac{\pi }{2},q_y)}(i)=e^{i\frac{\pi }{2}i}(e^{iq_y/2}n_{i,1}+e^{iq_y/2}n_{i,2})(q_y=0,{\displaystyle \frac{\pi }{2}},\pi ,{\displaystyle \frac{\pi }{2}}).`$ (54)
The corresponding bosonized expressions is obtained by those of the charge densities as a function of $`\varphi _{\rho \pm }`$ and $`\varphi _{\sigma 1,2}`$:

$`\rho _1(x)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi }}_x(\varphi _{\rho _+}+\varphi _\rho _{})+{\displaystyle \frac{e^{i(\varphi _{\rho _+}+\varphi _\rho _{}2k_Fx)}}{\pi a}}\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{2}\varphi _{\sigma _1}(x)+{\displaystyle \frac{C}{\pi a}}e^{2i(\varphi _{\rho _+}+\varphi _\rho _{}2k_Fx)},`$ (55)
$`\rho _2(x)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi }}_x(\varphi _{\rho _+}\varphi _\rho _{})+{\displaystyle \frac{e^{i(\varphi _{\rho _+}\varphi _\rho _{}2k_Fx)}}{\pi a}}\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{2}\varphi _{\sigma _2}(x)+{\displaystyle \frac{C}{\pi a}}e^{2i(\varphi _{\rho _+}\varphi _\rho _{}2k_Fx)}.`$ (56)
We consider first $`q_x=\pi `$. The charge density wave order parameters are straightforwardly obtained from (55)-(56) as:

$`O_{CDW(\pi ,0)}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\pi \alpha }}\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _{\rho +}\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _\rho `$ (57)
$`O_{CDW(\pi ,\pi )}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\pi \alpha }}\mathrm{sin}2\varphi _{\rho +}\mathrm{sin}2\varphi _\rho `$ (58)
The bond order wave order parameters measure the charge density between the sites $`i`$ and $`i+1`$, i.e. on site $`i+1/2`$, and their bosonized expression reads:

$`O_{BOW(\pi ,0)}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\pi \alpha }}\mathrm{sin}2\varphi _{\rho +}\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _\rho `$ (59)
$`O_{BOW(\pi ,\pi )}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\pi \alpha }}\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _{\rho +}\mathrm{sin}2\varphi _\rho `$ (60)
Concerning the $`\pi /2`$ charge density wave order parameter, we have to consider whether $`\varphi _\sigma `$ or $`\theta _\sigma `$ is ordered. In the case $`\theta _\sigma `$ is ordered, the operators $`\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{2}\varphi _{\sigma ,1,2}`$ have zero expectation value, and exponentially decaying correlations, so that all of the $`(\pi /2,q_y)`$-CDW order parameters have short-range order. When $`\varphi _\sigma `$ and $`\varphi _{\sigma +}`$ are ordered, the operators $`\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{2}\varphi _{\sigma ,1,2}`$ have non-zero expectation values. In this case, the expression of the order parameters for $`(\pi /2,q_y)`$CDW as a function of $`\varphi _{\rho +}`$ and $`\varphi _\rho `$ is:

$`O_{CDW(\frac{\pi }{2},0)}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\pi \alpha }}e^{i\varphi _{\rho +}}\mathrm{cos}\varphi _\rho `$ (61)
$`O_{CDW(\frac{\pi }{2},\frac{\pi }{2})}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\pi \alpha }}e^{i\varphi _{\rho +}}\mathrm{cos}(\varphi _\rho {\displaystyle \frac{\pi }{4}})`$ (62)
$`O_{CDW(\frac{\pi }{2},\pi )}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\pi \alpha }}e^{i\varphi _{\rho +}}\mathrm{sin}\varphi _\rho `$ (63)
$`O_{CDW(\frac{\pi }{2},\frac{\pi }{2})}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\pi \alpha }}e^{i\varphi _{\rho +}}\mathrm{cos}(\varphi _\rho +{\displaystyle \frac{\pi }{4}})`$ (64)
From the knowledge of the order parameters, in the following we are going to discuss the ground states that are realized for the various possible ordering of the phase fields. We will first discuss the orderings with $`\varphi _\rho =\frac{\pi }{4}`$ and then turn to orderings with $`\varphi _\rho =0`$. As we have explained in Sec. III.2, the latter type of ordering should be expected for dominant $`J_{}`$. In Tables 1-2 we give a summary of the phases corresponding to $`\varphi _{\rho +}=\pi /4`$ and $`\varphi _{\rho +}=0`$. These different phases are detailed in the forthcoming sections.

### IV.2 $`(\pi ,\pi )`$-charge density wave

In the case of $`\varphi _{\rho +}=\frac{\pi }{4}`$, $`\varphi _\rho =\frac{\pi }{4}`$, $`\varphi _{\sigma +}=0`$, $`\theta _\sigma =\frac{\pi }{2}`$, the $`(\pi /2,q_y)`$CDW order parameters have all zero expectation value and exponentially decaying correlations. Moreover, the $`(\pi ,\pi )`$-CDW order parameter has a non-zero expectation value, leading to a zig-zag charge orderingmostovoy\_nav2o5 ; vojta\_qfl . This ordering is represented on Fig. 1. This charge ordered phase possesses also a spin gap caused by interchain coupling and identifies with the CDW<sub>sg</sub> (with spin gap) of Ref. vojta\_qfl, . The ground state is this phase is fourfold degenerate (twofold due to translation symmetry, and twofold due to the two possible orientations of the spin singlets). We note that this phase has previously bee discussed in Sec. II.1 in the limit of $`U\mathrm{}`$, however in that limit it was not possible to discuss the spin modes. From the discussion of Sec. II.1, we see that the essential ingredient for the zig-zag ordering is the mutual locking of the $`4k_F`$ charge density fluctuations so that zig-zag ordering needs both strong intrachain and interchain repulsion. The formation of the spin gap appears to be unrelated to the zig-zag ordering, but only a consequence of the coupling of the $`q=0`$ fluctuations. We note however that the higher order terms derived in App. B could lead in the case of a large charge gap to corrections to the spin Hamiltonian that could enhance the spin gap. In the RG study of Eqs. (34), this phase is obtained for $`y_3+\mathrm{}`$, and $`y_2+\mathrm{}`$.

### IV.3 $`(\frac{\pi }{2},\frac{\pi }{2})`$ Charge density wave

In the case of $`\varphi _{\rho +}=\varphi _\rho =\pm \frac{\pi }{4}`$ and $`\varphi _{\sigma +}=0,\varphi _\sigma =0`$ a $`(\frac{\pi }{2},\pm \frac{\pi }{2})`$-CDW state is formed coexisting with a $`(\pi ,\pi )`$-CDW oscillation. This phase possesses also an intrachain spin gap. The corresponding state is represented on Fig. 2. A simple physical picture of this state is that a $`\frac{\pi }{2}`$-charge density is formed in each chain, and the interchain repulsion locks the phases of both charge density waves. Since there is an intrachain gap, this phase appears to be more likely to be observed in a Hubbard ladder with $`U<0`$ and $`V_{}>0`$ or in a t-J ladder in a regime in which $`J_{}`$ is large enough to cause the formation of a spin gap in the single chainnakamura\_tJ . The dephasing between the two charge density waves is $`2\varphi _\rho =\pm \frac{\pi }{2}`$. This dephasing results from the mutual locking of the $`4k_F`$ density fluctuations, thus pointing to strong repulsion in the chain. The corresponding phase has a fourfold degenerate ground state. In the renormalization group treatment, this phase is obtained for $`y_1+\mathrm{}`$ and $`y_3+\mathrm{}`$.

### IV.4 $`(\pi ,0)`$ Bond order wave

For $`\varphi _{\rho +}=\frac{\pi }{4}`$, $`\varphi _\rho =\frac{\pi }{2}`$, $`\varphi _{\sigma +}=0`$, $`\theta _\sigma =0`$, all of the CDW order parameters vanish. The only nonvanishing order parameter is $`(\pi ,0)`$-BOW. This BOW can be described in physical terms in the following way: the fermions are localized on the bonds between two sites, and due to the $`J_{}`$ interaction, they form a spin singlet with the fermion on the opposite chain. Clearly, this phase should be expected at strong $`J_{}`$ and moderate repulsion in the chains. The ground state is only twofold degenerate. In the renormalization group, this phase is obtained for $`y_4\mathrm{}`$, $`y_5+y_6+\mathrm{}`$, and the inspection of the expression of $`y_4`$ confirms that $`J_{}`$ is the dominant interaction in the $`(\pi ,0)`$-BOW. The corresponding phase is drawn on Figure 3.

We note that since this phase has a uniform charge density, it is a possible candidate for the homogeneous insulator HI<sub>sg</sub> phase of Ref. vojta\_qfl, . It is also interesting to remark that this phase is a two-leg analog of the SDW<sub>1</sub> phase obtained in riera\_coexistence\_1d  in a system of coupled quarter filled extended Hubbard chains.

### IV.5 $`(\frac{\pi }{2},\pi )`$ Charge density wave

For $`\varphi _{\rho +}=\frac{\pi }{4}`$, $`\varphi _\rho =\frac{\pi }{2}`$, $`\varphi _{\sigma +}=0`$, $`\varphi _\sigma =0`$, the $`(\frac{\pi }{2},\pi )`$-CDW order parameter does not vanish. The $`(\pi ,0)`$-BOW correlations are also present in this phase. A sketch of this phase is given in Fig. 4. Similarly to the $`(\frac{\pi }{2},\frac{\pi }{2})`$-CDW this phase results from the mutual locking of the $`2k_F`$ charge density wave fluctuations of the two coupled chains. However, in contrast to the $`(\frac{\pi }{2},\frac{\pi }{2})`$-CDW this locking is produced by the coupling of the $`2k_F`$ density fluctuations. This implies that the spin gap is formed as a result of interchain coupling.

In the RG study this phase is obtained for $`y_4+\mathrm{}`$, $`y_5+y_6+\mathrm{}`$. Using the expression of $`y_4`$ we see that this phase is dominated by interchain repulsion in contrast with the $`(\pi ,0)`$-BOW.

### IV.6 $`(\pi ,\pi )`$ Bond order wave

When $`\varphi _{\rho +}=0`$,$`\varphi _\rho =\pm \frac{\pi }{4}`$, $`\varphi _{\sigma +}=\frac{\pi }{2}`$, $`\theta _\sigma =0`$, all of the CDW order parameters vanish and only the $`(\pi ,\pi )`$-BOW order parameter is non-zero. This phase corresponds to a staggered bond ordering shown on Fig. 5. It can be viewed as a $`(\pi ,\pi )`$-CDW translated by half a lattice spacing. Elementary excitations in this phase are thus similar to those of the $`(\pi ,\pi )`$-CDW phase.

In the renormalization group such state is obtained for $`y_2+\mathrm{}`$, $`y_3+\mathrm{}`$.

### IV.7 $`(\frac{\pi }{2},\frac{\pi }{2})`$ Charge Density Wave

When $`\varphi _{\rho +}=0`$,$`\varphi _\rho =\pm \frac{\pi }{4}`$, $`\varphi _{\sigma +}=\frac{\pi }{2}`$, $`\varphi _\sigma =0`$, the $`(\frac{\pi }{2},\frac{\pi }{2})`$-CDW order parameter does not vanish and coexists with a $`(\pi ,\pi )`$-BOW. This phase is different from the $`(\frac{\pi }{2},\frac{\pi }{2})`$-CDW previously encountered as the previous phase contained a $`(\pi ,\pi )`$-CDW. There are however similarities between these two phases since both result from the mutual locking of $`4k_F`$ components of density fluctuations combined with an intrachain spin gap. Since the sign change in $`g_0`$ results from the formation of an interchain spin gap, we should expect this phase to have only a rather narrow domain of existence. This phase is sketched on Fig. 6. In the renormalization group treatment, it is obtained when $`y_1+\mathrm{}`$, $`y_3+\mathrm{}`$.

### IV.8 $`(\pi ,0)`$ Charge Density Wave

When $`\varphi _{\rho +}=0`$,$`\varphi _\rho =\pm \frac{\pi }{2}`$, $`\varphi _{\sigma +}=\frac{\pi }{2}`$, $`\theta _\sigma =0`$, the only non-vanishing order parameter is the $`(\pi ,0)`$-CDW one. In the RG study this phase is obtained for $`y_4\mathrm{}`$, $`y_5+y_6+\mathrm{}`$, i.e. it corresponds to a dominant $`J_{}`$, in agreement with the results of Sec. II.2. This phase can be viewed as the $`(\pi ,0)`$-BOW shifted by a half lattice spacing. The corresponding phase is sketched in Fig. 7.

### IV.9 $`(\frac{\pi }{2},\pi )`$ Charge Density Wave

When $`\varphi _{\rho +}=0`$,$`\varphi _\rho =\pm \frac{\pi }{2}`$, $`\varphi _{\sigma +}=\frac{\pi }{2}`$, $`\varphi _\sigma =0`$, the only non-vanishing order parameters are the $`(\pi ,0)`$-CDW and the $`(\frac{\pi }{2},\pi )`$-CDW ones. Under RG study, this phase is obtained for $`y_4+\mathrm{}`$, $`y_5+y_6+\mathrm{}`$ and corresponds to dominant $`V_{}`$. For this reason, we should expect this phase to have a rather narrow domain of existence. The spin gap corresponds again to an intrachain spin gap. This phase is sketched in Fig. 8.

## V Elementary excitations

In the present section, we discuss the nature of the elementary excitations in the various gapped phases of the quarter-filled two leg ladder. Due to the spin-charge separation, all of the insulating phases have charge excitations of charge $`\pm e`$ and zero spin. However, the nature of the magnetic excitations is dependent of the nature of the phases considered. Below, we review the various phases with their elementary excitations.

### V.1 $`(\pi ,\pi )`$-CDW and $`(\pi ,0)`$-BOW

#### V.1.1 Charge excitations

In these two phases, $`y_3+\mathrm{}`$, implying that the effective Hamiltonian for the charge sector is described by two sine-Gordon Hamiltonians:

$$H_{\text{eff}}^c=H_+^c+H_{}^c,$$
(65)
where

$$H_\alpha ^c=\frac{dx}{2\pi }\left[u_{\rho _\alpha }K_{\rho _\alpha }(\pi \mathrm{\Pi }_{\rho _\alpha })^2+\frac{u_{\rho _\alpha }}{K_{\rho _\alpha }}(_x\varphi _{\rho _\alpha })^2\right]+\frac{2g_\alpha }{(2\pi a)^2}𝑑x\mathrm{cos}4\varphi _{\rho _\alpha },$$
(66)
$`\alpha =\pm `$. Thus, the elementary excitations can be described in terms of solitons of two decoupled sine-Gordon models. Following a semiclassical argument, a soliton is joining two consecutive minima of the Hamiltonian (66). These minimums are given by $`<\varphi _{\rho _\alpha }>\pi /4[\pi /2]`$. As a result, the charge of solitons is given by:

$$q_\alpha =\frac{2}{\pi }_{\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}_x\varphi _{\rho _\alpha }=\frac{2}{\pi }[\varphi _{\rho _\alpha }(+\mathrm{})\varphi _{\rho _\alpha }(\mathrm{})]=\pm 1$$
(67)
These solitons can be understood as domain walls between the two charge ordered ground states as represented on figure 9(a) and figure 9(c). Alternatively, the charged solitons can be viewed as holon-holon (for charge $`e`$) or antiholon-antiholon (for charge $`+e`$) bound states. The neutral solitons can similarly be viewed as holon-antiholon bound state. An immediate consequence of the mapping of the charge excitations onto the sine-Gordon model is that the transport properties of the quarter-filled ladder can be obtained from the methods reviewed in Ref. controzzi\_mott . For $`K_{\rho \alpha }>1/4`$, the solitons are the only possible excitations in the model. For more strongly repulsive excitations, the formation of soliton bound states (breathers) becomes possible. The existence of these excitations translates into an exciton peak in the optical conductivity. Such exciton peak has been studied in the case of the single Hubbard chain in Ref. essler\_mott\_excitons1d, . However, in the model we are considering, for $`K_{\rho \alpha }<1/4`$, intrachain Umklapp scattering becomes relevant and total/antisymmetric charge excitations no more decouple in this regime.

#### V.1.2 spin excitations

To describe spin excitations, we need to consider the effective Hamiltonian of the spin modes:

$`H={\displaystyle \frac{dx}{2\pi }\underset{r=\pm }{}\left[u_{\sigma ,r}K_{\sigma ,r}(\pi \mathrm{\Pi }_{\sigma ,r})^2+\frac{u_{\sigma ,r}}{K_{\sigma ,r}}(_x\varphi _{\sigma ,r})^2\right]}+{\displaystyle \frac{2g_2}{(2\pi \alpha )^2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _{\sigma +}\mathrm{cos}2\theta _\sigma }`$ (68)
This Hamiltonian corresponds exactly to the bosonized Hamiltonian of a zig-zag spin ladderwhite\_zigzag ; allen ; allen\_spinons . Remarkably, in the strong coupling limit $`V_{},V_{},Ut_{},t`$, a mapping on a zig-zag spin chain was derived to describe the low energy excitations in the $`(\pi ,\pi )`$-CDW phasevojta\_qfl . We thus notice the continuity between the weak coupling and the strong coupling limit for the spin excitations of the $`(\pi ,\pi )`$-CDW in this problem. Spin excitations of the quarter filled ladder are those of a zig-zag ladder, i. e. massive spinons. A more detailed picture of the spin excitations can be gained by applying a transformation due to Witten and Shankarwitten\_shankar ; allen\_spinons ; zachar\_exotic\_kondo . We first notice that we have $`K_{\sigma +}K_\sigma =1`$ and $`u_{\sigma +}=u_\sigma `$. Thus, we can perform a duality transformation $`\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_\sigma =\theta _\sigma ,\stackrel{~}{\theta }_\sigma =\varphi _\sigma `$, and introduce:

$`\varphi _a={\displaystyle \frac{\varphi _{\sigma +}+\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_\sigma }{\sqrt{2}}}`$ (69)
$`\varphi _b={\displaystyle \frac{\varphi _{\sigma +}\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_\sigma }{\sqrt{2}}}`$ (70)
This procedure permits us to reduce the effective Hamiltonian to:

$`H=H_a+H_b`$ (71)
$`H_a={\displaystyle \frac{dx}{2\pi }\left[u_aK_a(\pi \mathrm{\Pi }_a)^2+\frac{u_a}{K_a}(_x\varphi _a)^2\right]}{\displaystyle \frac{g_2}{(2\pi \alpha )^2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{8}\varphi _a}`$ (72)
$`H_b={\displaystyle \frac{dx}{2\pi }\left[u_bK_b(\pi \mathrm{\Pi }_b)^2+\frac{u_b}{K_b}(_x\varphi _b)^2\right]}{\displaystyle \frac{g_2}{(2\pi \alpha )^2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{8}\varphi _b},`$ (73)
where $`u_a=u_b=u_{\sigma +}`$, $`K_a=K_b=K_{\sigma +}`$ and $`g_2`$ preserves $`SU(2)`$ symmetry. The original Hamiltonian (68) is thus decoupled into two massive sine-Gordon model at the $`SU(2)`$ point. They describe two massive spin excitations carrying spin $`1/2`$. In the strong coupling limit, the spin excitations can be viewed as the spinons of a zig-zag ladder (see figure 9).

### V.2 $`(\frac{\pi }{2},\frac{\pi }{2})`$-CDW

In the $`(\frac{\pi }{2},\pm \frac{\pi }{2})`$-charge density wave phases, the charge excitations carry the same quantum numbers as in the zig-zag charge ordered phase. They correspond to domain walls between the four different $`(\frac{\pi }{2},\frac{\pi }{2})`$-CDW ground states. However, spin excitations are of a different nature since both $`S_1^z`$ and $`S_2^z`$ are good quantum numbers. In fact, these spin excitations are massive spinons “confined” within each chain.

### V.3 phases with $`\varphi _\rho =\frac{\pi }{2}`$

The total charge excitations still carry $`\pm e`$, as in the previous phase, but this time it is not possible to decouple spin excitations from antisymmetric charge excitations. When $`\varphi _\sigma `$ is ordered, we have $`\varphi _\rho (+\mathrm{})\varphi _\rho (\mathrm{})=\pm \pi /2`$, $`\varphi _{\sigma +}(+\mathrm{})\varphi _{\sigma +}(\mathrm{})=\pm \pi /2`$ and $`\varphi _\sigma (+\mathrm{})\varphi _\sigma (\mathrm{})=\pm \pi /2`$. As a result, the elementary excitations carry total charge zero, charge difference $`\pm e`$, and spin $`S_1^z=\pm 1/2`$ or $`S_2^z=\pm 1/2`$. These elementary excitations can be viewed as a three body bound state of a holon in one chain, a antiholon in the other chain and a spinon. This excitation is sketched on Fig. 10.

In fact, there exists an interesting analogy between the spin/antisymmetric charge sector of the quarter filled ladder and the half-filled Hubbard-Kondo-Heisenberg (HKH) chain.

The half-filled HKH chain is described by the Hamiltonian:

$`H=t{\displaystyle \underset{i,\sigma }{}}(c_{i+1,\sigma }^{}c_{i,\sigma }+c_{i,\sigma }^{}c_{i+1,\sigma })+U{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}n_{i,}n_{i,}+{\displaystyle \frac{J_K}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{i,\alpha ,\beta }{}}\stackrel{}{S}_ic_{i,\alpha }^{}\stackrel{}{\sigma }_{\alpha ,\beta }c_{i,\beta }+J_H{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}\stackrel{}{S}_i\stackrel{}{S}_{i+1},`$ (74)
where $`\sigma ^{x,y,z}`$ are the usual Pauli matrices. At half-filling, the resulting bosonized Hamiltonian fujimoto\_kondo1d ; lehur98\_kondo1d ; lehur00\_kondo1d  reads:

$`H`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{dx}{2\pi }\left[u_\rho K_\rho (\pi \mathrm{\Pi }_\rho )^2+\frac{u_\rho }{K_\rho }(_x\varphi _\rho )^2\right]}+{\displaystyle \frac{dx}{2\pi }\left[u_{\sigma +}K_{\sigma +}(\pi \mathrm{\Pi }_{\sigma +})^2+\frac{u_{\sigma +}}{K_{\sigma +}}(_x\varphi _{\sigma +})^2\right]}`$ (76)
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{dx}{2\pi }\left[u_\sigma K_\sigma (\pi \mathrm{\Pi }_\sigma )^2+\frac{u_\sigma }{K_\sigma }(_x\varphi _\sigma )^2\right]}+{\displaystyle \frac{2J_K}{(2\pi a)^2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{2}\varphi _\rho \left[\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _\sigma \mathrm{cos}2\varphi _{\sigma +}+2\mathrm{cos}2\theta _\sigma \right]}.`$
Making a rescaling $`\varphi _\rho =\sqrt{2}\varphi _\rho `$,$`K_\rho =2K_\rho `$, we obtain the same Hamiltonian as the one describing the spin/charge difference excitations of the quarter-filled ladder (22)-(27). In particular, the point $`K_\rho =1/2`$ in the quarter filled ladder corresponds to $`K_\rho =1`$ in the Kondo-Heisenberg chain, i.e. $`U=0`$ in (74). Thus, magnetic properties near the metal insulator transition of the quarter filled ladder should be analogous to those of a Kondo-Heisenberg insulator. Close to $`K_\rho =1`$, the structure of excitations is quite different. In the vicinity of that pointschulz\_son , gapful excitations of the ladder away from half-filling are described by a massive $`SO(3)\times SO(3)`$ Gross-Neveu modelazaria\_su4  as a consequence of the breaking of the original $`SU(4)`$ symmetry to $`SU(2)\times SU(2)`$. The enhancement of the symmetry by the RG is instead absent for $`K_\rho =1/2`$.

## VI Numerical study of the phase diagram

In this Section we discuss the numerical results of the RG equations. Prior than that we analyze in details the nature of the transition among the various phases. The analysis is partially accomplished by a mapping onto a Majorana fermion theory, that gives also rise to a connection with the spin-orbital models.

### VI.1 Mapping on a theory containing Majorana Fermions

We consider first the part of the Hamiltonian (27) with couplings $`g_{4,5,6}`$. It is convenient to rewrite this part of the interaction in terms of massive Majorana fermion operators $`\xi _\nu `$ ($`\nu =0,1,2,3`$). Using the identitiesshelton\_spin\_ladders :

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _{\sigma +}}{\pi a}}=i(\zeta _{R,1}\zeta _{L,1}+\zeta _{R,2}\zeta _{L,2}),`$ (77)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _\sigma }{\pi a}}=i(\zeta _{R,3}\zeta _{L,3}+\zeta _{R,0}\zeta _{L,0}),`$ (78)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{cos}2\theta _\sigma }{\pi a}}=i(\zeta _{R,0}\zeta _{L,0}\zeta _{R,3}\zeta _{L,3}),`$ (79)
and the relation $`g_5=g_4+g_6`$, the interaction terms $`g_{4,5,6}`$ are rewritten as:

$`i\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _\rho \left[{\displaystyle \frac{g_4}{2\pi a}}(\zeta _{R,1}\zeta _{L,1}+\zeta _{R,2}\zeta _{L,2}+\zeta _{R,3}\zeta _{L,3})+{\displaystyle \frac{g_5+g_6}{2\pi a}}\zeta _{R,0}\zeta _{L,0}\right],`$ (80)
where $`g_5+g_6`$ is always a positive quantity.

In the continuum limit, following Ref.shelton\_spin\_ladders,  we can express the bosonic exponents in terms of the order ($`\sigma _i`$) and disorder ($`\mu _i`$) parameters of four Ising models as follows:

$`\mathrm{cos}\varphi _{\sigma +}=\sigma _1\sigma _2,`$ (81)
$`\mathrm{cos}\varphi _\sigma =\sigma _3\sigma _0,`$ (82)
$`\mathrm{sin}\varphi _{\sigma +}=\mu _1\mu _2,`$ (83)
$`\mathrm{cos}\theta _\sigma =\mu _3\sigma _0.`$ (84)
When $`\varphi _\rho =\frac{\pi }{2}`$, the Ising order parameter $`\sigma _0`$ has a non-zero expectation value. However the sign of $`g_4`$ is not fixed. For $`g_4>0`$, and $`\varphi _\rho =\frac{\pi }{2}`$, $`\sigma _{1,2,3}`$ have all nonzero expectation values, corresponding to have both $`\varphi _{\sigma +}`$ and $`\varphi _\sigma `$ ordered. For $`g_4<0`$, $`\mu _{1,2,3}`$ have all nonzero expectation values, corresponding to having both $`\varphi _{\sigma +}`$ and $`\theta _\sigma `$ ordered.

Now, we would like to focus on the interaction part of the Hamiltonian that contains the terms $`g_1,g_2,g_{\sigma \pm }`$. Using the mapping on Majorana fermions, we can write this part as:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{g_{\sigma +}}{2\pi ^2}}(_x\varphi _{\sigma +})^2+{\displaystyle \frac{g_\sigma }{2\pi ^2}}(_x\varphi _{\sigma +})^2+{\displaystyle \frac{g_1}{2(\pi a)^2}}\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _\sigma \mathrm{cos}2\varphi _{\sigma +}+{\displaystyle \frac{g_2}{2(\pi a)^2}}\mathrm{cos}2\theta _\sigma \mathrm{cos}2\varphi _{\sigma +}`$ (85)
$`=g_{\sigma +}\zeta _{R,1}\zeta _{L,1}\zeta _{R,2}\zeta _{L,2}g_\sigma \zeta _{R,0}\zeta _{L,0}\zeta _{R,3}\zeta _{L,3}g_+(\zeta _{R,1}\zeta _{L,1}+\zeta _{R,2}\zeta _{L,2})\zeta _{R,0}\zeta _{L,0}g_{}(\zeta _{R,1}\zeta _{L,1}+\zeta _{R,2}\zeta _{L,2})\zeta _{R,3}\zeta _{L,3}.`$
where $`g_\pm =(g_1\pm g_2)/2`$. Using the $`SU(2)`$ symmetry conditions(43), this expression can be further rewritten as:

$`g_{\sigma +}(\zeta _{R,1}\zeta _{L,1}\zeta _{R,2}\zeta _{L,2}+\zeta _{R,1}\zeta _{L,1}\zeta _{R,3}\zeta _{L,3}+\zeta _{R,2}\zeta _{L,2}\zeta _{R,3}\zeta _{L,3})g_\sigma (\zeta _{R,1}\zeta _{L,1}+\zeta _{R,2}\zeta _{L,2}+\zeta _{R,3}\zeta _{L,3})\zeta _{R,0}\zeta _{L,0},`$ (86)
which makes the $`SU(2)`$ symmetry transparent. We note that for $`g_\sigma >0`$, $`i\zeta _{R,a}\zeta _{L,a}`$ can have opposite signs depending whether $`a=0`$ or $`a0`$. This implies that either $`\mu _00`$ and $`\sigma _{1,2,3}0`$ or $`\sigma _00`$ and $`\mu _{1,2,3}0`$. Both cases correspond to having $`\theta _\sigma `$ and $`\varphi _{\sigma +}`$ ordered. When $`g_\sigma <0`$, we have both $`\varphi _{\sigma +}`$ and $`\varphi _\sigma `$ ordered.

#### VI.1.1 Spin-orbital models

Before closing this section, we would like to discuss the following connection. If we consider the case of $`V_{}=0`$, $`J_{}=0`$ and $`V_{}=U`$, we can rewrite the interchain interaction in Eq. (1) as:

$$\frac{U}{2}\underset{i}{}(n_{i,1,}+n_{i,1,}+n_{i,2,}+n_{i,2,})^2,$$
(87)
which has a manifest $`SU(4)`$ invariance. Thus the problem is related to the quarter-filled $`SU(4)`$ Hubbard modelassaraf\_su(n) . The charge Umklapp term derived for that modelassaraf\_su(n)  agrees with (23). If U is large enough, the low energy excitations are those of an antiferromagnetic chain of $`SU(4)`$ spinsassaraf\_su(n) . Considering deviations from the $`SU(4)`$ symmetric point, it is possible to derive a model describing the low energy excitations of the insulatormostovoy\_nav2o5  in terms of coupled spin and orbital modes (the spin-orbital model). In Refs. azaria\_su4, ; azaria\_su4\_long, ; itoi\_spin\_orbital, , a $`SU(2)\times SU(2)`$ spin-orbital symmetric model was analyzed perturbatively around the $`SU(4)`$ point using bosonization and refermionization techniques. An Hamiltonian describing the low energy dynamics of the system with six Majorana fermions was obtained, and the formation of a dimerized spin gapped phase was predicted in the physical range of parameters. The existence of this dimerized phase was also confirmed by numerical studiesitoi\_spin\_orbital ; pati\_orbital\_dmrg . In our present problem, assuming $`K_\rho 1`$ so that the term containing $`g_3`$ can be neglected, and using the mapping:

$$\frac{\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _\rho }{\pi a}=i(\zeta _{R,4}\zeta _{L,4}+\zeta _{R,4}\zeta _{L,4}),$$
(88)
we can recast the interactions in the spin/antisymmetric charge sector of Eq. (27) in terms of two triplets of Majorana fermions: $`(\zeta _1,\zeta _2,\zeta _3)`$ representing the spin excitations, and $`(\zeta _0,\zeta _4,\zeta _5)`$ representing the orbital excitations as in Ref. azaria\_su4, ; azaria\_su4\_long, ; itoi\_spin\_orbital, . The Hamiltonian we obtain is however more general, since we did not assume any $`SU(2)`$ symmetry in the orbital sector. From our previous discussion of the phase diagram in Sec. IV we expect that the dimerized phase (Phase IV in Ref. itoi\_spin\_orbital,  or Phase A in Ref. azaria\_su4\_long, ) of the spin-orbital model is related to the $`(\pi ,0)`$-BOW. In a different limitnersesyan\_biquadratic ; orignac\_spintube  of the $`SU(2)\times SU(2)`$ spin-orbital model, a dimerized insulating phase analogous to the $`(\pi ,0)`$-BOW was also obtained. We note that no charge ordering is predicted by the $`SU(2)\times SU(2)`$ spin orbital model. The reason for this is that the $`V_{}`$ term of the ladder model produces a large renormalization of $`K_\rho `$ in the charge ordered state, while leaving $`K_\sigma ,K_{\sigma +}`$ close to the non-interacting value, due to the remaining $`SU(2)`$ symmetry. To describe charge ordering, one has thus to consider more general spin-orbital models in which the interaction in the orbital sector has only the $`U(1)`$ symmetrymostovoy\_nav2o5 .

### VI.2 order of the transitions between the different phases

We now turn to the quantum phase transitions between the different phases of the quarter-filled ladder. These phase transitions can result from a change of the ordering in the $`\varphi _\rho `$ field, the spin gap being preserved, or from a change of the ordering in the spin sector. As we will see below, the former phase transitions are of second order and belong to the one-dimensional quantum Ising universality class, whereas the latter transitions can be either of second and first order. We begin discussing the Ising transitions in the antisymmetric charge mode.

#### VI.2.1 Ising transitions

We consider phase transitions in which the order in the spin sector is not changed, but the order in the antisymmetric charge sector $`\varphi _\rho `$ is modified. These transitions occur between the $`(\pi ,0)`$-BOW and the $`(\pi ,\pi )`$-CDW, the $`(\frac{\pi }{2},\pi )`$-CDWs and the $`(\frac{\pi }{2},\frac{\pi }{2})`$-CDWs, the $`(\pi ,\pi )`$-BOW and the $`(\pi ,0)`$-CDW. Since the order in the spin sector does not change we can describe the transition by concentrating only on the $`\varphi _\rho `$ modes. The resulting effective Hamiltonian reads:

$$H_\rho =\frac{dx}{2\pi }\left[u_\rho K_\rho (\pi \mathrm{\Pi }_\rho )^2+\frac{u_\rho }{K_\rho }(_x\varphi _\rho )^2\right]+\frac{2g_3}{(2\pi a)^2}𝑑x\mathrm{cos}4\varphi _\rho +\frac{2\overline{g}}{(2\pi a)^2}𝑑x\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _\rho .$$
(89)
This Hamiltonian is the one of the double sine-Gordon modelfabrizio\_dsg . The semiclassical analysis of the double cosine potential shows that for $`\varphi _\rho =\pm \frac{\pi }{4}`$, $`\mathrm{cos}2\varphi _\rho =0`$. Using the result of fabrizio\_dsg , this implies that as $`\overline{g}`$ is varied, an Ising transition is obtained in $`\varphi _\rho `$. For the sake of simplicity, let us consider the transition between the $`(\pi ,0)`$-BOW and the $`(\pi ,\pi )`$CDW. Similar features appear in all the other Ising transitions. In the $`(\pi ,\pi )`$-CDW, the order parameter $`O_{CDW_{(\pi ,\pi )}}\mathrm{sin}2\varphi _\rho `$. Using the results of fabrizio\_dsg  on the ultraviolet-infrared transmutation of operators, it is easily seen that $`O_{CDW_{(\pi ,\pi )}}\mu `$, where $`\mu `$ is the disorder parameter of a quantum Ising model. This implies in particular that $`O_{CDW_{(\pi ,\pi )}}(x)O_{CDW_{(\pi ,\pi )}}(0)x^{1/4}`$ at the transition. Moreover, near the transition one has: $`O_{CDW_{(\pi ,\pi )}}\left(\frac{a\mathrm{\Delta }_\rho }{v}\right)^{1/8}`$. If the gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\rho `$ vanishes linearly with the interaction $`V`$ this implies $`O_{CDW_{(\pi ,\pi )}}(VV_c)^{1/8}`$, giving rise to the onset of the order parameter at a critical value $`V_c`$. Such onset was numerically observed at the homogeneous insulator HI<sub>sg</sub>-CDW<sub>sg</sub> transition in Ref.vojta\_qfl,  and attributed to an Ising transition. In our results, we observe that neither the charge gap nor the spin gap go to zero at the transition, meaning the absence of a critical value $`V_c`$ for the onset of the transition.

A simple picture of the transition is obtained, in the limit of strong coupling $`V_{}\mathrm{}`$, by an effective quantum Ising model. In this picture, the only states retained are the electron pairs forming singlets along the diagonal and pointing either in the northwest or northeast direction. The variable $`\sigma ^z=1`$ when the diagonal singlet formed of two electrons is oriented northwest (NW), and $`\sigma ^z=1`$ when the singlet is oriented northeast (NE). In the ground state all the electron pairs must have the same orientation. The corresponding potential energy reads:

$$H_{pot.}=V_{}\underset{n}{}\sigma _n^z\sigma _{n+1}^z.$$
(90)
The kinetic energy comes from the term $`t`$. In second order perturbation theory, $`t`$ flips a singlet pair from the NW to NE orientation. This process leads to a kinetic term in the Hamiltonian:

$$H_{kin.}=\frac{t_{}^2}{V_{}}\sigma _n^x.$$
(91)
When the kinetic term in the Hamiltonian dominates, the singlet pairs go back and forth between NE and NW orientation leading to a zero average of the $`(\pi ,\pi )`$-CDW order parameter, and an effective bond order wave. When the potential energy dominates, the singlet pairs are all locked in the NE or NW orientation giving rise to a nonzero $`(\pi ,\pi )`$-CDW.

#### VI.2.2 spin transitions

In the present section, we discuss the transitions in the spin sector. Since the gaps in the$`\varphi _\rho `$ and $`\varphi _{\rho +}`$ sectors are robust, we can concentrate on a low energy effective spin model. First, let us focus on the case of $`\varphi _\rho =\frac{\pi }{2}`$. In that case, the discussion is equivalent to the one in Ref. tsuchiizu\_2leg\_firstorder, . The theory describing the transition point is the $`O(3)`$ Gross-Neveu model, and the operator that takes the system away from the transition point is the mass of the Gross-Neveu fermions. As a result, the system will have a second order phase transition in the $`SU(2)_2`$ WZW model universality class when the $`O(3)`$ Gross-Neveu has no spontaneous symmetry breaking and a first order transition when the Gross-Neveu model presents dynamical mass generationshankar\_gn\_at ; goldschmidt\_susy . For $`g_{\sigma +}<0`$, there is a spontaneous symmetry breaking and thus a first order transition. Since this corresponds to $`J_{}>0`$, first order spin transitions should be generic in the models we are considering. In particular, first order transitions should be expected between phases such as the $`(\pi ,0)`$-BOW and the $`(\frac{\pi }{2},\pi )`$-CDW or the $`(\pi ,0)`$-CDW and the $`(\frac{\pi }{2},\pi )`$-CDW. These first order transitions occur in the spin sector and should be observable by looking at spin-spin correlations. In the case of $`\varphi _\rho =\frac{\pi }{4}`$, we have to focus on the terms coming from $`g_1,g_2,g_{\sigma \pm }`$. In that case, for a transition to be possible we must have $`g_\sigma =0`$ as one can see directly from Eq. (85). The behavior at the transition then depends on the sign of $`g_{\sigma +}`$. When $`g_{\sigma +}>0`$, no gap is generated in the triplet modes thus giving a $`SU(2)_1\times SU(2)_1`$ criticality. For $`g_{\sigma +}<0`$, the triplet modes remain massive at the transition, leading to an Ising criticality. Since $`g_{\sigma +}J_{}<0`$, an Ising transition is obtained between the $`(\pi ,\pi )`$-BOW and the $`(\frac{\pi }{2},\frac{\pi }{2})`$-CDW or the $`(\pi ,\pi )`$-CDW and the $`(\frac{\pi }{2},\frac{\pi }{2})`$-CDW.

### VI.3 RG calculation

To find the phase diagram, we integrate the Eqs. (51) numerically using a fourth order Runge-Kutta algorithm for fixed values of $`K_\rho `$ at varying $`V_{}`$ and $`J_{}`$. We stop the numerical integration when one of the coupling constants $`y_3,y_5,y_6`$ becomes of order $`1`$. We find that at this scale, $`y_1,y_2`$ are still inferior to $`1`$. We have the following results. First, for $`K_\rho `$ larger than $`1/3`$, ($`K_\rho 1/2`$) the $`(\frac{\pi }{2},\frac{\pi }{2})`$-CDW and $`(\pi ,\pi )`$-CDW are absent. This is a consequence of the fact that in this regime, the $`2k_F`$ fluctuations are dominant over the $`4k_F`$ ones. As a result, we find either the bond order wave $`(\pi ,0)`$-BOW or the $`(\frac{\pi }{2},\pi )`$-CDW. As could be expected, a large $`J_{}`$ favors the former, and a large $`V_{}`$ favors the latter. A first order transition is expected between these two phases. The phase diagram for $`K_\rho =0.5`$ is drawn on Fig. 11.

When $`K_\rho `$ becomes smaller but still larger than $`1/3`$, the term $`\mathrm{cos}4\varphi _\rho `$ is more relevant and the $`(\frac{\pi }{2},\frac{\pi }{2})`$-CDW phase becomes stable at large $`V_{}`$. This can be understood as resulting from an increase in the strength of $`4k_F`$ fluctuations. The phase diagram for $`K_\rho =0.35`$ is sketched on Fig. 12.

For $`K_\rho `$ close to $`1/3`$, the topology of the phase diagram becomes more complex. The $`(\pi ,\pi )`$-CDW phase is present for competing $`V_{},J_{}`$, along with the $`(\pi ,0)`$-BOW and the two other CDWs. The phase diagram is sketched on Fig. 13.

Finally, for $`K_\rho <1/3`$, $`\mathrm{cos}4\varphi _\rho `$ is the most relevant operator, and the $`(\frac{\pi }{2},\pi )`$-CDW phase disappears altogether. The $`(\pi ,\pi )`$-CDW phase is obtained for $`V_{},J_{}`$ intermediate, whereas for strong $`J_{}`$, the $`(\pi ,0)`$-BOW is obtained and for strong $`V_{}`$, the $`(\frac{\pi }{2},\frac{\pi }{2})`$-CDW is obtained. The phase diagram for $`K_\rho =0.3`$ is sketched on Fig. 14.

### VI.4 Commensurate-Incommensurate transitions

#### VI.4.1 Deviations from quarter filling

Away from quarter filling, the number of particles is fixed via a chemical potential that affects only $`H_{\rho +}`$. The charge modes are described by the Hamiltonian:

$`H_{\rho +}={\displaystyle \frac{dx}{2\pi }\left[u_{\rho +}K_{\rho +}(\pi \mathrm{\Pi }_{\rho +})^2+\frac{u_{\rho +}}{K_{\rho +}}(_x\varphi _{\rho +})^2\right]}{\displaystyle \frac{2\mu }{\pi }}_x\varphi _{\rho +}{\displaystyle \frac{2V_{}a}{(2\pi a)^2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x\mathrm{cos}4\varphi _{\rho +}}`$ (92)
where $`\mu `$ measures the difference in chemical potential. A standard argument japaridze\_cic\_transition ; pokrovsky\_talapov\_prl ; schulz\_cic2d  then shows that for a difference in chemical potential of the order of the gap of the quarter filled system, a commensurate-incommensurate (C-I) transition occurs and the system becomes gapless. The renormalized $`K_{\rho +}^{}`$ exponent at the gapless point is suchschulz\_cic2d  that the dimension of the operator $`\mathrm{cos}4\varphi _{\rho +}`$ is one, which gives $`K_{\rho +}^{}=1/4`$. This result has been previously derived from different arguments in Ref. white\_ladder\_friedel,  and checked against numerical simulations.

In the incommensurate phase, the $`\frac{\pi }{2}`$-CDW correlations are the dominant ones as they behave as $`e^{i\varphi _{\rho +}(x)}e^{i\varphi _{\rho +}(0)}x^{K_{\rho +}/2}`$. Subdominant $`\pi `$-BOW or $`\pi `$-CDW correlations are also present and behave as: $`e^{i2\varphi _{\rho +}(x)}e^{i2\varphi _{\rho +}(0)}x^{2K_{\rho +}}`$. Right at the transition, the respective exponents are $`1/8`$ and $`1/2`$.

In principle, superconducting correlations are also possible. The only surviving superconducting order parameter is the $`d`$-wave one. Its lattice expression is given by:

$$O_{SC}^d(i)=\underset{\sigma }{}(c_{i,1,\sigma }c_{i,2,\sigma }c_{i,2,\sigma }c_{i,1,\sigma }).$$
(93)
One finds that this pairing operator behaves as $`e^{i\theta _{\rho +}(x)}e^{i\theta _{\rho +}(0)}x^{1/(2K_{\rho +})}`$. Right at the C-I transition, these correlations have an exponent $`2`$ which indicates that superconductivity is largely dominated by CDW correlations. In a doped quarter filled insulator the presence of the spin gap is therefore insufficient to render superconducting correlations dominant. This is to be contrasted with the case of the half-filled ladderschulz\_mitwochain  where superconducting correlations are dominant in the conducting phase.

#### VI.4.2 Effect of a magnetic field

An applied magnetic field couples to the ladder via a term:

$$H_{\text{mag.}}=\frac{h}{\pi }𝑑x_x\varphi _{\sigma +}$$
(94)
It is well known that a magnetic field applied to a spin gap system can produce a Luttinger liquid like phasechitra\_spinchains\_field  when the field becomes larger than the gap. The effect of the magnetic field is different in the case of strong repulsion ($`\varphi _\rho =\frac{\pi }{4}`$) and in the case of weaker repulsion ($`\varphi _\rho =\frac{\pi }{2}`$). For strong repulsion the spin-gap is caused by the terms $`g_1`$ or $`g_2`$. The effect of the applied field is to render these two terms irrelevant. As a result, both $`\varphi _{\sigma +}`$ and $`\varphi _\sigma `$ have gapless excitations leading to a C0S2 phase in the notations of Ref.balents\_2ch, . This C0S2 phase contains in chain $`2k_F`$ charge density and spin-density wave power-law correlations. One finds in the case of C0S2 phase obtained by applying a magnetic field to the $`(\pi ,\pi )`$CDW or the $`(\pi ,\pi )`$BOW:

$`O_{CDW_{2k_F,p}}(x)O_{CDW_{2k_F,p}}(0)\mathrm{cos}({\displaystyle \frac{\pi x}{2a}})\mathrm{cos}(mx){\displaystyle \frac{\text{Const.}}{x^{5/4}}},`$ (95)
$`S_p^z(x)S_p^z(0){\displaystyle \frac{1}{x^2}}+\mathrm{cos}({\displaystyle \frac{\pi x}{2a}})\mathrm{cos}(mx){\displaystyle \frac{\text{Const.}}{x^{5/4}}},`$ (96)
$`S_p^x(x)S_p^x(0)\text{Const.}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{cos}(mx)}{x^{5/2}}}+\mathrm{cos}({\displaystyle \frac{\pi x}{2a}}){\displaystyle \frac{\text{Const.}}{x^{5/4}}},`$ (97)
where exponents have been obtained from the transformation of Ref.allen\_spinons  and Sec. V.1.2 by requiring that at the transition the dimension of the relevant operators leading to the spin gap in Eq. (71) be of dimension oneschulz\_cic2d . In the case of the C0S2 phase obtained by applying a magnetic field to the $`(\frac{\pi }{2},\frac{\pi }{2})`$-CDWs, one finds insteadchitra\_spinchains\_field :

$`O_{CDW_{2k_F,p}}(x)O_{CDW_{2k_F,p}}(0)\mathrm{cos}({\displaystyle \frac{\pi x}{2a}})\mathrm{cos}(mx){\displaystyle \frac{\text{Const.}}{x^{1/2}}}`$ (98)
$`S_p^z(x)S_p^z(0){\displaystyle \frac{1}{x^2}}+\mathrm{cos}({\displaystyle \frac{\pi x}{2a}})\mathrm{cos}(mx){\displaystyle \frac{\text{Const.}}{x^{1/2}}}`$ (99)
$`S_p^x(x)S_p^x(0)\text{Const.}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{cos}(mx)}{x^{5/2}}}+\mathrm{cos}({\displaystyle \frac{\pi x}{2a}}){\displaystyle \frac{\text{Const.}}{x^2}}.`$ (100)
For weaker repulsion, the spin gap is caused by the terms $`g_4,g_5,g_6`$. The application of the magnetic field then produces only a suppression of the gap in $`\varphi _{\sigma +}`$ giving a C0S1 phase. The behavior of the induced spin density wave correlations depends on whether $`\varphi _\sigma `$ or $`\theta _\sigma `$ is ordered in the parent case. In the first case, which corresponds to the $`(\frac{\pi }{2},\pi )`$ CDWs under strong magnetic field, critical correlations develop in $`S_p^z(x)`$ as well as in the $`(\frac{\pi }{2},q_y)`$-CDW order parameters with an exponent of $`1`$. In the second case, which corresponds to the $`(\pi ,0)`$-BOW and the $`(\pi ,0)`$-CDW under strong magnetic field, only $`S_p^{x,y}`$ become critical with an exponent of $`1/4`$.

## VII Conclusions

In the present paper, we have studied charge ordering in the two-leg Hubbard ladder at quarter filling. Focusing in the regime of strong-coupling on-site Coulomb repulsion $`U`$, we have investigated the interplay of the interchain Coulomb repulsion $`V_{}`$ and the exchange interaction $`J_{}`$ on charge ordering, and a variety of spin-gapped charge density waves and bond-order waves have been obtained. In particular, when the intrachain repulsion is strong enough, the ground state of the system exhibits a zig-zag charge order state similar to the phase described in numerical studiesvojta\_qfl . We have obtained the complete phase diagram in the $`J_{}V_{}`$ plane by numerical integration of perturbative renormalization group equations and discussed the transitions between the various charge ordered and bond-ordered states. The results show that phase transitions can occur by an ordering in the antisymmetric charge sector or the spin sectors. The quantum phase transition in the spin sector, as in the half-filled case, is described by the $`O(3)`$ Gross-Neveu model tsuchiizu\_2leg\_firstorder ; wu\_2leg\_firstorder  with a mass term and can be either second or first order. The transition in the antisymmetric charge sector which is proper to the quarter-filled ladder belongs to the Ising universality class. This type of Ising transition is expected to separate the zig-zag charge ordered state from a bond ordered wave phase. We have further analyzed the charge and spin excitations in the various gapped phases. Due to charge-spin separation, all of the insulating phases have spinless holon excitations of charge $`\pm e`$. However, the magnetic excitations depend on the nature of the phases considered. For strong intrachain repulsion, they can be either massive spinons confined in each chain in the case of the $`(\frac{\pi }{2},\frac{\pi }{2})`$-CDWs or domain walls of a dimerized effective zig-zag ladder in the case of a zig-zag charge ordered state in agreement with Ref. vojta\_qfl, . In the case of weaker intrachain repulsion, we have discussed the analogy of the excitations spin/antisymmetric charge sector of the quarter filled ladder with those of a half-filled Hubbard-Kondo-Heisenberg chain. In the framework of bosonization we have discussed the connection with other effective models of the quarter-filled ladder, such as the spin-orbital modelsazaria\_su4 ; itoi\_spin\_orbital . We have briefly discussed the physics away from quarter filling, where commensurate-incommensurate transitions can occur. The analysis of correlations functions show that CDW correlations largely dominate superconducting fluctuations at odds with half-filled laddersschulz\_mitwochain . Finally, we have discussed the effect of magnetic fields strong enough to lift the spin gaps and show that the induced spin density wave correlations sharply distinguish the different charge ordered and bond ordered phases.

We would like to point out that although our results do not directly apply to the $`\mathrm{NaV}_2\mathrm{O}_5`$ compound, since in this material $`t_{}=2t_{}`$, our model is able to reproduce a zig-zag charge ordered state with spin gap. It would be interesting to compare the features of the zig-zag state we predict with the one obtained in $`\mathrm{NaV}_2\mathrm{O}_5`$. In this perspective, it would be interesting to study in details a model in which interchain hopping is fully taken into account following the approach of schulz\_2chains ; balents\_2ch . It would also be interesting to extend our analysis to zig-zag ladder models, since experimental realizations of these systems are now availableamasaki\_2ch\_zigzag .

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank N. Andrei, M. Cuoco, P. Lecheminant and T. Giamarchi for discussions and comments. E. Orignac acknowledges support from Ministère de la recherche et des nouvelles technologies under a grant “ACI Jeunes chercheurs”.

## Appendix A Derivation of the Umklapp term from the lattice Hamiltonian of the quarter-filled ladder

In this section, we give a derivation of the $`\mathrm{cos}4\varphi _{\rho +}`$ term in the bosonized charge Hamiltonian (23) of the quarter filled ladder following Ref. tsuchiizu\_qf1d, . To derive this term, one needs to separate the low energy processes which keep all the particles near the Fermi points $`\pm k_F`$ from the high energy processes that involve transfer of particles near the points $`\pm 3k_F`$. By eliminating the latter high energy processes, one is left with an effective action that involve only the Fermi points. The details of the procedure to eliminate the high energy states are exposed in Ref. tsuchiizu\_qf1d, . The processes that give rise to the $`\mathrm{cos}4\varphi _{\rho +}`$ are represented diagrammatically on figure 15.

The corresponding terms in the action read for diagram (a):

$`S_a`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2L^3}}{\displaystyle \underset{r=R,L}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{k_1,k_1^{}}{q_1}}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{p_1,\sigma _1}{p_1^{},\sigma _1^{}}}{}}{\displaystyle _0^\beta }d\tau _1{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{k_2,k_2^{}}{q_2}}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{p_2,\sigma _2}{p_2^{},\sigma _2^{}}}{}}{\displaystyle _0^\beta }d\tau _2{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{k_3,k_3^{}}{q_3}}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{p_3,\sigma _3}{p_3^{},\sigma _3^{}}}{}}{\displaystyle _0^\beta }d\tau _3X_{\sigma _1,\sigma _1^{}}^{p_1,p_1^{}}X_{\sigma _2,\sigma _2^{}}^{p_2,p_2^{}}Y_{\sigma _3,\sigma _3^{}}^{p_3,p_3^{}}\times `$ (101)
$`(c_{k_1+q_1,r,p_1,\sigma _1}^{}c_{k_1^{}q_1,r,p_1^{},\sigma _1^{}}^{}c_{k_1^{},r,p_1^{},\sigma _1^{}}d_{k_1,r,p_1,\sigma _1})(\tau _1)(c_{k_2+q_2,r,p_2,\sigma _2}^{}c_{k_2^{}q_2,r,p_2^{},\sigma _2^{}}^{}c_{k_2^{},r,p_2^{},\sigma _2^{}}d_{k_2,r,p_2,\sigma _2})(\tau _2)\times `$
$`(d_{k_3+q_3,r,p_3,\sigma _3}^{}d_{k_3^{}q_3,r,p_3^{},\sigma _3^{}}^{}c_{k_3^{},r,p_3^{},\sigma _3^{}}c_{k_3,r,p_3,\sigma _3})(\tau _3)_d,`$
for diagram (b):

$`S_b`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2L^3}}{\displaystyle \underset{r=R,L}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{k_1,k_1^{}}{q_1}}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{p_1,\sigma _1}{p_1^{},\sigma _1^{}}}{}}{\displaystyle _0^\beta }d\tau _1{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{k_2,k_2^{}}{q_2}}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{p_2,\sigma _2}{p_2^{},\sigma _2^{}}}{}}{\displaystyle _0^\beta }d\tau _2{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{k_3,k_3^{}}{q_3}}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{p_3,\sigma _3}{p_3^{},\sigma _3^{}}}{}}{\displaystyle _0^\beta }d\tau _3X_{\sigma _1,\sigma _1^{}}^{p_1,p_1^{}}X_{\sigma _2,\sigma _2^{}}^{p_2,p_2^{}}Z_{\sigma _3,\sigma _3^{}}^{p_3,p_3^{}}\times `$ (102)
$`(d_{k_1+q_1,r,p_1,\sigma _1}^{}c_{k_1^{}q_1,r,p_1^{},\sigma _1^{}}^{}c_{k_1^{},r,p_1^{},\sigma _1^{}}c_{k_1,r,p_1,\sigma _1})(\tau _1)(c_{k_2+q_2,r,p_2,\sigma _2}^{}c_{k_2^{}q_2,r,p_2^{},\sigma _2^{}}^{}c_{k_2^{},r,p_2^{},\sigma _2^{}}d_{k_2,r,p_2,\sigma _2})(\tau _2)\times `$
$`(c_{k_3+q_3,r,p_3,\sigma _3}^{}d_{k_3^{}q_3,r,p_3^{},\sigma _3^{}}^{}c_{k_3^{},r,p_3^{},\sigma _3^{}}d_{k_3,r,p_3,\sigma _3})(\tau _3)_d,`$
for diagram (c):

$`S_c`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2L^3}}{\displaystyle \underset{r=R,L}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{k_1,k_1^{}}{q_1}}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{p_1,\sigma _1}{p_1^{},\sigma _1^{}}}{}}{\displaystyle _0^\beta }d\tau _1{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{k_2,k_2^{}}{q_2}}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{p_2,\sigma _2}{p_2^{},\sigma _2^{}}}{}}{\displaystyle _0^\beta }d\tau _2{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{k_3,k_3^{}}{q_3}}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{p_3,\sigma _3}{p_3^{},\sigma _3^{}}}{}}{\displaystyle _0^\beta }d\tau _3X_{\sigma _1,\sigma _1^{}}^{p_1,p_1^{}}X_{\sigma _2,\sigma _2^{}}^{p_2,p_2^{}}X_{\sigma _3,\sigma _3^{}}^{p_3,p_3^{}}\times `$ (103)
$`(d_{k_1+q_1,r,p_1,\sigma _1}^{}c_{k_1^{}q_1,r,p_1^{},\sigma _1^{}}^{}c_{k_1^{},r,p_1^{},\sigma _1^{}}c_{k_1,r,p_1,\sigma _1})(\tau _1)(c_{k_2+q_2,r,p_2,\sigma _2}^{}c_{k_2^{}q_2,r,p_2^{},\sigma _2^{}}^{}c_{k_2^{},r,p_2^{},\sigma _2^{}}d_{k_2,r,p_2,\sigma _2})(\tau _2)\times `$
$`(c_{k_3+q_3,r,p_3,\sigma _3}^{}d_{k_3^{}q_3,r,p_3^{},\sigma _3^{}}^{}d_{k_3^{},r,p_3^{},\sigma _3^{}}c_{k_3,r,p_3,\sigma _3})(\tau _3)_d,`$
where we use notations similar to those of Ref. tsuchiizu\_qf1d, . The differences with Ref. tsuchiizu\_qf1d,  are the following. The most important is the apparition of a chain index $`p=1,2`$ for the fermions. Another difference (very minor) is that we write the annihilation operator for fermions with momentum close to $`k_F`$, $`c_R`$ and $`d_R`$ for fermions with momentum close to $`3k_F`$. For fermions with momentum close to $`k_F`$ and $`3k_F`$ we write the respective annihilation operators $`c_L`$ and $`d_L`$. We also have by definition $`R=L`$ and $`L=R`$. We have the following expressions for $`X,Y,Z`$:

$`X_{\sigma \sigma ^{}}^{pp^{}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{Ua}{2}}\delta _{\sigma ,\sigma ^{}}\delta _{p,p^{}}+V_{}a(1\delta _{p,p^{}})`$ (104)
$`Y_{\sigma \sigma ^{}}^{pp^{}}`$ $`=`$ $`(Ua\delta _{\sigma ,\sigma ^{}}2V_{})\delta _{p,p^{}}+V_{}a(1\delta _{p,p^{}})`$ (105)
$`Z_{\sigma \sigma ^{}}^{pp^{}}`$ $`=`$ $`({\displaystyle \frac{Ua}{2}}\delta _{\sigma ,\sigma ^{}}V_{})\delta _{p,p^{}}+V_{}a(1\delta _{p,p^{}})`$ (106)
The operators $`d_R,d_L`$ annihilate states of high energy. In the low energy limit, these states do not appear and should therefore be integrated outtsuchiizu\_qf1d . This is the meaning of the symbol $`\mathrm{}_d`$. These states are integrated out by using the following Green’s function for the $`d`$ fermions:

$`d_{k,r,p,\sigma }(\tau )d_{k^{},r^{},p^{},\sigma ^{}}(0)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\sqrt{2}t}}\delta _{k,k^{}}\delta _{r,r^{}}\delta _{p,p^{}}\delta _{\sigma ,\sigma ^{}}`$ (107)
where $`t`$ is the transfer integral of the extended Hubbard model. This integration gives rise to a term that describes the collision of four fermions with $`8k_F`$ Umklapp. This term reads:

$`S={\displaystyle \frac{1}{8t^2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑xA_{\sigma _1\sigma _1^{}\sigma _2\sigma _2^{}}^{p_1p_1^{}p_2p_2^{}}(\psi _{R,p_1,\sigma _1}^{}\psi _{L,p_1,\sigma _1})(\psi _{R,p_1^{},\sigma _1^{}}^{}\psi _{L,p_1^{},\sigma _1^{}})(\psi _{R,p_2,\sigma _2}^{}\psi _{L,p_2,\sigma _2})(\psi _{R,p_2^{},\sigma _2^{}}^{}\psi _{L,p_2^{},\sigma _2^{}})}+\text{H. c.}.`$ (108)
If all the fermions belong to the same chain($`p_1=p_1^{}=p_2=p_2^{}`$) , one recovers the term $`\mathrm{cos}4\sqrt{2}\varphi _{\rho ,p}`$ derived in Ref. tsuchiizu\_qf1d, . For the case $`(p_1,\sigma _1)=(1,)`$, $`(p_1^{},\sigma _1^{})=(1,)`$ $`(p_2,\sigma _2)=(2,)`$, $`(p_2^{},\sigma _2^{})=(2,)`$ (and all the $`4!=24`$ cases equivalent by permutation), the Umklapp term (108) can be bosonized in the form:

$`S=g{\displaystyle 𝑑x\mathrm{cos}(2(\varphi _{1,}+\varphi _{1,}+\varphi _{2,}+\varphi _{2,}))}=g{\displaystyle \mathrm{cos}4\varphi _{\rho +}}`$ (109)
This leads to the term we derived phenomenologically. Finding the expression of $`g`$ is only a tedious calculation. The final result is:

$`g={\displaystyle \frac{V_{}(U^2+10V_{}U+4V_{}^24V_{}V_{})\alpha }{32t^2\pi ^2\alpha ^2}}`$ (110)
## Appendix B Phenomenological spin density

In this appendix, we give a phenomenological derivation of the $`2nk_F`$ Fourier components of the spin density that generalizes the equations (18)–(20). Let us begin with $`S^z(x)`$. If we have a system of fermions with both spins up and down, we can write the following expressionhaldane\_bosons  for the spin density:

$$\rho _\alpha (x)=\rho _0\frac{1}{\pi }_x\varphi _\alpha +\underset{m}{}A_m\mathrm{cos}2m(\varphi _\alpha k_Fx)$$
(111)
Expressing these quantities in terms of $`\varphi _\rho ,\varphi _\sigma `$, forming the difference and taking into account the term $`\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{8}\varphi _\sigma `$ in the Hamiltonian, we obtain the expression:

$$S^z(x)=\frac{1}{\pi \sqrt{2}}_x\varphi _\sigma +\underset{m}{}B_m\mathrm{sin}\sqrt{2}m\varphi _\sigma \mathrm{sin}(m\sqrt{2}\varphi _\rho 2k_Fx).$$
(112)
Since the Hamiltonian of spin excitations contains a term $`\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{8}\varphi _\sigma `$, new terms will be generated by fusion of this operator with $`S^z(x)`$. For $`m`$ odd, the fusions will generate a term $`\mathrm{sin}\sqrt{2}\varphi _\sigma `$. For $`m`$ even, the fusions will generate a term $`_x\varphi _\sigma `$. This leads to the following phenomenological expression for $`S^z(x)`$:

$`S^z(x)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi \sqrt{2}}}_x\varphi _\sigma {\displaystyle \underset{m}{}}A_{2m,z}\mathrm{sin}2m(\sqrt{2}\varphi _\rho 2k_Fx)`$ (113)
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{m}{}}A_{2m+1,z}\mathrm{sin}\sqrt{2}\varphi _\sigma \mathrm{sin}(2m+1)(\sqrt{2}\varphi _\rho 2k_Fx).`$
The usual expression of the spin density (20) is recovered for $`A_{2m,z}=0`$ and $`A_{2m+1,z}=0`$ for $`m1`$. For the $`S^{x,y}(x)`$ similar expressions can be obtained. Starting from the phenomenological Haldane expansion of the fermion creation and annihilation operatorshaldane\_bosons :

$$\psi _\sigma (x)e^{\frac{i}{\sqrt{2}}(\theta _\rho +\sigma \theta _\sigma )}\underset{m=\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}e^{i(2m+1)[\frac{(\varphi _\rho +\sigma \varphi _\sigma )}{\sqrt{2}}k_Fx]},$$
(114)
we easily obtain:

$`S^+(x)e^{i\sqrt{2}\theta _\sigma }{\displaystyle \underset{m,m^{}}{}}e^{i[(mm^{})(\sqrt{2}\varphi _\rho 2k_Fx)+(m+m^{}+1)\sqrt{2}\varphi _\sigma ]}.`$ (115)
We note that $`m+m^{}+1`$ and $`mm^{}`$ have different parities. We see easily that by fusion with $`\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{8}\varphi _\sigma `$, the terms in $`\varphi _\sigma `$ with $`m+m^{}+1`$ odd will be reduced to $`\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{2}\varphi _\sigma `$ while the terms with $`m+m^{}+1`$ even will be reduced to $`1`$. The expression of $`S^+(x)`$ therefore reduces to:

$`S^+(x)`$ $``$ $`e^{i\sqrt{2}\theta _\sigma }{\displaystyle \underset{m}{}}A_{2m+1,x}e^{i(2m+1)(\sqrt{2}\varphi _\rho 2k_Fx)}`$ (116)
$`+e^{i\sqrt{2}\theta _\sigma }\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{2}\varphi _\sigma {\displaystyle \underset{m}{}}A_{2m,x}e^{i2m(\sqrt{2}\varphi _\rho 2k_Fx)}.`$
We can check that the expressions we have obtained lead to rotational invariant expression of the spin correlations for $`K_\sigma =1`$, provided that $`A_{m,z}=A_{m,x}`$ for all $`m`$.

Eqs. (113)-(116) can also be derived from a more physical argument. The Ogata-Shiba wavefunction tell us that in the limit of $`U/t1`$, the spin excitations can be described as a “squeezed” antiferromagnetic spin chains, the spins being carried by the electronsogata\_inf . The spin density should therefore be described by the following expression:

$`\stackrel{}{S}(x)={\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}\stackrel{}{S}_n\delta (xx_n),`$ (117)
where the $`x_i`$ are the positions of the electrons along the chain, labelled in such way that $`x_1<x_2<\mathrm{}<x_N`$. The vector $`\stackrel{}{S}_n`$ can be decomposed into a staggered and a uniform component as $`\stackrel{}{S}_n=\stackrel{}{J}_n+()^n\stackrel{}{n}_n`$. We will assume that both $`\stackrel{}{J}_n`$ and $`\stackrel{}{n}_n`$ are slowly varying at the scale of the average interparticle distance so that we can write: $`\stackrel{}{J}_n=\stackrel{}{J}(x=x_n)`$, $`\stackrel{}{n}_n=\stackrel{}{n}(x=x_n)`$, the functions $`\stackrel{}{J}(x)`$, $`\stackrel{}{n}(x)`$ varying smoothly between the points $`x_n`$. We note that the integral from $`\mathrm{}`$ to $`+\mathrm{}`$ of $`\stackrel{}{J}`$ is the total magnetization operator and also the generator of the rotations. Thus, we expect the functions $`\stackrel{}{J}`$ and $`\stackrel{}{n}`$ to obey the following commutation relations:

$`[J^a(x),J^b(x^{})]`$ $`=`$ $`iϵ_{abc}J^c(x)\delta (xx^{})(ab),`$ (118)
$`[J^a(x),n^b(x^{})]`$ $`=`$ $`iϵ_{abc}n^c(x)\delta (xx^{})(ab),`$ (119)
that coincide with the usual commutation relation of the generator of the rotations and the staggered magnetic fieldaffleck\_houches . Moreover, since the spin excitations of a spinful Luttinger liquid are expected to be described by a single gapless boson, as those of a spin-1/2 chain, it is natural to identify $`\stackrel{}{J}`$ to the bosonized uniform spin density of a spin 1/2 chain, and $`\stackrel{}{n}`$ to the staggered spin density. The corresponding expression reads:

$`J^+(x)=J^x+iJ^ye^{i\sqrt{2}\theta _\sigma }\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{2}\varphi _\sigma ;n^+e^{i\sqrt{2}\theta _\sigma }`$
$`J^z={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi \sqrt{2}}}\varphi _\sigma ;n^z\mathrm{sin}\sqrt{2}\varphi _\sigma `$ (120)
Let us now introduce a function $`\varphi (x)`$ such that $`\varphi (x_n)=n\pi `$. We can rewrite the delta function as:

$`{\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}\delta (xx_n)={\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}\delta (\varphi (x)n\pi ){\displaystyle \frac{d\varphi }{dx}}={\displaystyle \underset{m}{}}e^{i2m\varphi (x)}{\displaystyle \frac{d\varphi }{dx}},`$ (121)
and we have: $`e^{i\varphi (x)}=()^n`$. This allows us to write:

$`\stackrel{}{S}(x)=\stackrel{}{J}(x){\displaystyle \underset{m}{}}e^{i2m\varphi (x)}{\displaystyle \frac{d\varphi }{dx}}+\stackrel{}{n}(x){\displaystyle \underset{m}{}}e^{i(2m+1)\varphi (x)}{\displaystyle \frac{d\varphi }{dx}}.`$ (122)
Since $`\varphi (x)`$ must be $`n\pi `$ each time that there is a particle, we have that $`\varphi (x)=\varphi _{}(x)+\varphi _{}(x)`$, from which we easily obtain: $`\varphi (x)=\pi \rho _0\sqrt{2}\varphi _\rho `$. Using the bosonized expressions (B) of $`\stackrel{}{J}`$ and $`\stackrel{}{n}`$ in terms of $`\varphi _\sigma `$ the expressions (113)- (116) are then easily seen to be equivalent to (122). Applying the expression (122) to our problem we see that the terms coming from the $`4k_F`$ component of the spin density are less relevant and read:

$$(\mathrm{cos}4\varphi _{\rho +}+\mathrm{cos}4\varphi _\rho )\stackrel{}{J}_1\stackrel{}{J}_2$$
(123)
The contribution of these terms to the Hamiltonian (22) can thus usually be neglected being less relevant. However, in the case of $`J_{}`$ sufficiently large, a gap may be formed in the modes $`\rho ,\sigma \pm `$ at higher energy scale than in $`\rho +`$. In that case, the terms we have derived can lead to a modification of the coefficient $`g_0`$ of the term $`\mathrm{cos}4\varphi _{\rho +}`$ in (23) and a change of the ground state expectation value of $`\varphi _{\rho +}`$ from $`\frac{\pi }{4}`$ to $`0`$ if $`J_{}`$ is large enough.