Determinant quantum Monte Carlo (DQMC) is a powerful numerical technique to study many-body fermionic systems. In recent years, several classes of sign-free (SF) models have been discovered, where the notorious sign problem can be circumvented. However, it is not clear what the inherent physical characteristics and limitations of SF models are. In particular, which zero-temperature quantum phases of matter are accessible within such models, and which are fundamentally inaccessible? Here, we show that a model belonging to any of the known SF classes within DQMC cannot have a stable Fermi-liquid ground state in spatial dimension $d\ge 2$, unless the antiunitary symmetry that prevents the sign problem is spontaneously broken (for which there are currently no known examples in SF models). For SF models belonging to one of the symmetry classes (where the absence of the sign problem follows from a combination of nonunitary symmetries of the fermionic action), any putative Fermi liquid fixed point generically includes an attractive Cooper-like interaction that destabilizes it. In the recently discovered lower-symmetry classes of SF models, the Fermi surface (FS) is generically unstable even at the level of the quadratic action. Our results suggest a fundamental link between Fermi liquids and the fermion sign problem. Interestingly, our results do not rule out a non-Fermi-liquid ground state with a FS in a sign-free model.

• Received 6 March 2023
• Revised 19 May 2023
• Accepted 20 June 2023

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.056501