Gauge-invariant formulation of axion-electrodynamics

In this paper, we propose a simple generalization of axion-electrodynamics (AED) for the general case in which Dirac fermion fields and scalar/pseudoscalar axion-like fields are present in the local [Formula: see text]([Formula: see text])[Formula: see text] gauge-invariant Lagrangian of the system. Our primary goal (which is not explored here) is to understand and predict novel phenomena that have no counterpart in standard (pseudoscalar) AED. With this end in view, we discuss on very general grounds, possible processes in which a Dirac field is coupled to axionic fields via the electromagnetic (EM) field.

Confinement Properties of the 3D Topological Insulators Bi₂Se₃, Bi₂Te₃, and Sb₂Te₃

<p>Recent discoveries have spurred the theoretical prediction and experimental realization of novel materials that have topological properties arising from band inversion. Such topological insulators have conductive surface or edge states but are insulating in the bulk. How the signatures of topological behavior evolve when the system size is reduced is noteworthy from both a fundamental and an application-oriented point of view, as such understanding may form the basis for tailoring systems to be in specific topological phases. This thesis investigates the softly confined topological insulator family of Bi₂Se₃ and its properties when subjected to an in-plane magnetic field. The model system provides a useful platform for systematic study of the transition between the normal and the topological phases, including the development of band inversion and the formation of massless-Dirac-fermion surface states. The effects of bare size quantization, two-dimensional-subband mixing, and electron-hole asymmetry are disentangled and their corresponding physical consequences elucidated. When a magnetic field is present, it is found that the Dirac cone which is formed in surface states, splits into two cones separated in momentum space and that these cones exhibit properties of Weyl fermions. The effective Zeeman splitting is much larger for the surface states than for the bulk states. Furthermore, the g-factor of the surface states depends on the size of the material. The mathematical model presented here may be realizable experimentally in the frame of optical lattices in ultra cold atom gases.</p>

Confinement Properties of the 3D Topological Insulators Bi₂Se₃, Bi₂Te₃, and Sb₂Te₃

<p>Recent discoveries have spurred the theoretical prediction and experimental realization of novel materials that have topological properties arising from band inversion. Such topological insulators have conductive surface or edge states but are insulating in the bulk. How the signatures of topological behavior evolve when the system size is reduced is noteworthy from both a fundamental and an application-oriented point of view, as such understanding may form the basis for tailoring systems to be in specific topological phases. This thesis investigates the softly confined topological insulator family of Bi₂Se₃ and its properties when subjected to an in-plane magnetic field. The model system provides a useful platform for systematic study of the transition between the normal and the topological phases, including the development of band inversion and the formation of massless-Dirac-fermion surface states. The effects of bare size quantization, two-dimensional-subband mixing, and electron-hole asymmetry are disentangled and their corresponding physical consequences elucidated. When a magnetic field is present, it is found that the Dirac cone which is formed in surface states, splits into two cones separated in momentum space and that these cones exhibit properties of Weyl fermions. The effective Zeeman splitting is much larger for the surface states than for the bulk states. Furthermore, the g-factor of the surface states depends on the size of the material. The mathematical model presented here may be realizable experimentally in the frame of optical lattices in ultra cold atom gases.</p>

Observation of Possible Nonlinear Anomalous Hall Effect in Organic Two-Dimensional Dirac Fermion System

We report the observation of nonlinear anomalous Hall effect (NLAHE) in the multilayered organic conductor α-(BEDT-TTF)2I3 in the charge order (CO) insulating phase just under the critical pressure for transition into two-dimensional (2D) massless Dirac fermion (DF) phase. We successfully extracted the finite nonlinear Hall voltage proportional to square current at zero magnetic field. The observed NLAHE features, current direction dependence and correlation with CO, are consistent with the previous estimation assuming 2D massive DF with a pair of tilted Dirac cones. This is the first observation of topological transport in organic conductors, and also the first example of NLAHE in the electronic phase with spontaneous symmetry breaking.

Dark matter to baryon ratio from scalar triplets decay in type-II seesaw

We propose a minimal model for the cosmic coincidence problem $$\Omega _\mathrm{DM}/\Omega _B \sim 5$$ Ω DM / Ω B ∼ 5 and neutrino mass in a type-II seesaw scenario. We extend the standard model of particle physics with a $$\mathrm SU(2)$$ S U ( 2 ) singlet leptonic Dirac fermion $$\chi $$ χ , which represents the candidate of dark matter (DM), and two triplet scalars $$\Delta _{1,2}$$ Δ 1 , 2 with hierarchical masses. In the early Universe, the CP violating out-of-equilibrium decay of lightest $$\Delta $$ Δ generates a net $$B-L$$ B - L asymmetry in the visible sector (comprising of SM fields), where B and L represents the total baryon and lepton number respectively. A part of this asymmetry gets transferred to the dark sector (comprising of DM $$\chi $$ χ ) through a dimension eight operator which conserves $$B-L$$ B - L . Above the electroweak phase transition, the $$B-L$$ B - L asymmetry of the visible sector gets converted to a net B-asymmetry by the $$B+L$$ B + L violating sphalerons, while the $$B-L$$ B - L asymmetry of the dark sector remains untouched which we see today as relics of DM. We show that the observed DM abundance can be explained for a DM mass about 8 GeV. We then introduce an additional singlet scalar field $$\phi $$ ϕ which mixes with the SM-Higgs to annihilate the symmetric component of the DM resonantly which requires the singlet scalar mass to be twice the DM mass, i.e. around 16 GeV, which can be searched at collider experiments. In our model, the active neutrinos also get small masses by the induced vacuum expectation value (vev) of the triplet scalars $$\Delta _{1,2}$$ Δ 1 , 2 . In the later part of the paper we discuss all the constraints on model parameters coming from invisible Higgs decay, Higgs signal strength, DM direct detection and relic density of DM.

Perturbative renormalization of the $$ \mathrm{T}\overline{\mathrm{T}} $$-deformed free massive Dirac fermion

In this paper we explicitly carry out the perturbative renormalization of the $$ T\overline{T} $$ T T ¯ -deformed free massive Dirac fermion in two dimensions up to second order in the coupling constant. This is done by computing the two-to-two S-matrix using the LSZ reduction formula and canceling out the divergences by introducing counterterms. We demonstrate that the renormalized Lagrangian is unambiguously determined by demanding that it gives the correct S-matrix of a $$ T\overline{T} $$ T T ¯ -deformed integrable field theory. Remarkably, the renormalized Lagrangian is qualitatively very different from its classical counterpart.

Entanglement entropy of inhomogeneous XX spin chains with algebraic interactions

We introduce a family of inhomogeneous XX spin chains whose squared couplings are a polynomial of degree at most four in the site index. We show how to obtain an asymptotic approximation for the Rényi entanglement entropy of all such chains in a constant magnetic field at half filling by exploiting their connection with the conformal field theory of a massless Dirac fermion in a suitably curved static background. We study the above approximation for three particular chains in the family, two of them related to well-known quasi-exactly solvable quantum models on the line and the third one to classical Krawtchouk polynomials, finding an excellent agreement with the exact value obtained numerically when the Rényi parameter α is less than one. When α ≥ 1 we find parity oscillations, as expected from the homogeneous case, and show that they are very accurately reproduced by a modification of the Fagotti-Calabrese formula. We have also analyzed the asymptotic behavior of the Rényi entanglement entropy in the non-standard situation of arbitrary filling and/or inhomogeneous magnetic field. Our numerical results show that in this case a block of spins at each end of the chain becomes disentangled from the rest. Moreover, the asymptotic approximation for the case of half filling and constant magnetic field, when suitably rescaled to the region of non-vanishing entropy, provides a rough approximation to the entanglement entropy also in this general case.

Glide symmetry protected higher-order topological insulators from semimetals with butterfly-like nodal lines

Most topological insulators (TIs) discovered today in spinful systems can be transformed from topological semimetals (TSMs) with vanishing bulk gap via introducing the spin-orbit coupling (SOC), which manifests the intrinsic links between the gapped topological insulator phases and the gapless TSMs. Recently, we have discovered a family of TSMs in time-reversal invariant spinless systems, which host butterfly-like nodal-lines (NLs) consisting of a pair of identical concentric intersecting coplanar ellipses (CICE). In this Communication, we unveil the intrinsic link between this exotic class of nodal-line semimetals (NLSMs) and a $${{\mathbb{Z}}}_{4}$$ Z 4 = 2 topological crystalline insulator (TCI), by including substantial SOC. We demonstrate that in three space groups (i.e., Pbam (No.55), P4/mbm (No.127), and P42/mbc (No.135)), the TCI supports a fourfold Dirac fermion on the (001) surface protected by two glide symmetries, which originates from the intertwined drumhead surface states of the CICE NLs. The higher order topology is further demonstrated by the emergence of one-dimensional helical hinge states, indicating the discovery of a higher order topological insulator protected by a glide symmetry.

A modular A 4 symmetric scotogenic model for neutrino mass and dark matter

Modular symmetries have been impeccable in neutrino and quark sectors. This motivated us, to propose a variant of scotogenic model based on modular $A_4$ symmetry and realize the neutrino mass generation at one-loop level through radiative mechanism. Alongside, we discuss the lepton flavour violating processes $\mu \to e \gamma$, $\mu \to3e$ and $\mu - e $ conversion in the nucleus. The lightest Dirac fermion turns out to be potential dark matter candidate, made stable by suitable assignment of modular weights. The relic density of the same has been computed with annihilations mediated by inert scalars and new $U(1)$ gauge boson. The LEP-II and ATLAS dilepton constraints on the new gauge parameters are suitably considered to show the consistent parameter region.