Superconducting edge states in a topological insulator

AbstractWe study the stability of multiple conducting edge states in a topological insulator against perturbations allowed by the time-reversal symmetry. A system is modeled as a multi-channel Luttinger liquid, with the number of channels equal to the number of Kramers doublets at the edge. Assuming strong interactions and weak disorder, we first formulate a low-energy effective theory for a clean translation invariant system and then include the disorder terms allowed by the time-reversal symmetry. In a clean system with N Kramers doublets, N − 1 edge states are gapped by Josephson couplings and the single remaining gapless mode describes collective motion of Cooper pairs synchronous across the channels. Disorder perturbation in this regime, allowed by the time reversal symmetry is a simultaneous backscattering of particles in all N channels. Its relevance depends strongly on the parity if the number of channel N is not very large. Our main result is that disorder becomes irrelevant with the increase of the number of edge modes leading to the stability of the edge states superconducting regime even for repulsive interactions.

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Photonic topological insulator with broken time-reversal symmetry

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1525502113 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 113 (18) ◽

pp. 4924-4928 ◽

Cited By ~ 104

Author(s):

Cheng He ◽

Xiao-Chen Sun ◽

Xiao-Ping Liu ◽

Ming-Hui Lu ◽

Yulin Chen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Topological Insulator ◽

Time Reversal ◽

Magnetoelectric Coupling ◽

Electronic Systems ◽

Time Reversal Symmetry ◽

Edge States ◽

Protection Mechanism ◽

Fundamental Particles ◽

Left And Right ◽

Symmetry Protected

A topological insulator is a material with an insulating interior but time-reversal symmetry-protected conducting edge states. Since its prediction and discovery almost a decade ago, such a symmetry-protected topological phase has been explored beyond electronic systems in the realm of photonics. Electrons are spin-1/2 particles, whereas photons are spin-1 particles. The distinct spin difference between these two kinds of particles means that their corresponding symmetry is fundamentally different. It is well understood that an electronic topological insulator is protected by the electron’s spin-1/2 (fermionic) time-reversal symmetry Tf2=−1. However, the same protection does not exist under normal circumstances for a photonic topological insulator, due to photon’s spin-1 (bosonic) time-reversal symmetry Tb2=1. In this work, we report a design of photonic topological insulator using the Tellegen magnetoelectric coupling as the photonic pseudospin orbit interaction for left and right circularly polarized helical spin states. The Tellegen magnetoelectric coupling breaks bosonic time-reversal symmetry but instead gives rise to a conserved artificial fermionic-like-pseudo time-reversal symmetry, Tp (Tp2=−1), due to the electromagnetic duality. Surprisingly, we find that, in this system, the helical edge states are, in fact, protected by this fermionic-like pseudo time-reversal symmetry Tp rather than by the bosonic time-reversal symmetry Tb. This remarkable finding is expected to pave a new path to understanding the symmetry protection mechanism for topological phases of other fundamental particles and to searching for novel implementations for topological insulators.

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DMRG study of strongly interacting $\mathbb{Z}_2$ flatbands: a toy model inspired by twisted bilayer graphene

SciPost Physics Core ◽

10.21468/scipostphyscore.3.2.015 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Paul Eugenio ◽

Ceren Dag

Keyword(s):

Magnetic Field ◽

Time Reversal ◽

Ground States ◽

Bilayer Graphene ◽

Chern Number ◽

Strong Interactions ◽

Time Reversal Symmetry ◽

Density Matrix Renormalization ◽

Topological Quantum ◽

Twisted Bilayer Graphene

Strong interactions between electrons occupying bands of opposite (or like) topological quantum numbers (Chern=\pm1=±1), and with flat dispersion, are studied by using lowest Landau level (LLL) wavefunctions. More precisely, we determine the ground states for two scenarios at half-filling: (i) LLL’s with opposite sign of magnetic field, and therefore opposite Chern number; and (ii) LLL’s with the same magnetic field. In the first scenario – which we argue to be a toy model inspired by the chirally symmetric continuum model for twisted bilayer graphene – the opposite Chern LLL’s are Kramer pairs, and thus there exists time-reversal symmetry (\mathbb{Z}_2ℤ2). Turning on repulsive interactions drives the system to spontaneously break time-reversal symmetry – a quantum anomalous Hall state described by one particle per LLL orbital, either all positive Chern |{++\cdots+}\rangle|++⋯+⟩ or all negative |{--\cdots-}\rangle|−−⋯−⟩. If instead, interactions are taken between electrons of like-Chern number, the ground state is an SU(2)SU(2) ferromagnet, with total spin pointing along an arbitrary direction, as with the \nu=1ν=1 spin-\frac{1}{2}12 quantum Hall ferromagnet. The ground states and some of their excitations for both of these scenarios are argued analytically, and further complimented by density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) and exact diagonalization.

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