Narrowing of Topological Bands due to Electronic Orbital Degrees of Freedom

The fractional quantum Hall effect has been predicted to occur in the absence of magnetic fields and at high temperature in lattice systems that have flat bands with a nonzero Chern number. We demonstrate that orbital degrees of freedom in frustrated lattice systems lead to a narrowing of topologically nontrivial bands. This robust effect does not rely on fine-tuned long-range hopping parameters and is directly relevant to a wide class of transition-metal compounds.