Topological frustration and structural balance in strongly correlated itinerant electron systems: an extension of Nagaoka's theorem

We prove that Nagaoka’s theorem, that the large-$U$ Hubbard model with exactly one hole is ferromagnetic, holds for any balanced Hamiltonian. Simply put, if a positive bond encodes friendship and a negative bond encodes enmity, then balance implies when that enemy of one’s enemy is one’s friend. We argue that, in itinerant electron systems, a balanced Hamiltonian, rather than bipartite lattice, defines an unfrustrated system. The proof is valid for multi-orbital models with arbitrary two-orbital interactions provided that no exchange interactions are antiferromagnetic: a class of models including the Kanomori Hamiltonian.