Following our previous work, we study the quantum phase transitions which spontaneously develop ferromagnetic spin order in helical fermi liquids which breaks continuous spin-space rotation symmetry, with application to the edge states of 3d topological band insulators. With finite fermi surface, the critical point has both z = 3 over-damped and z = 2 propagating quantum critical modes, and the z = 3 mode will lead to non-fermi liquid behavior on the entire fermi surface. In the ordered phase, the Goldstone mode is over-damped unless it propagates along special directions, and quasiparticle is ill defined on most parts of the fermi surface except for special points. Generalizations of our results to other systems with spin-orbit couplings are also discussed.
Majorana fermions were proposed to occur at edges and interfaces of gapped one-dimensional systems where phases with different topological character meet due to an interplay of spin-orbit coupling, proximity-induced superconductivity and external magnetic fields. Here we investigate the effect of strong particle interactions, and show that the helical liquid offers a mechanism that protects the very existence of Majorana edge states: whereas moderate interactions close the proximity gap which supports the edge states, in helical liquids the gap re-opens due to two-particle processes. However, …
We propose a finite-temperature phase diagram for the 2D spin-$1/2$ $J_1-J_2$ $XXZ$ antiferromagnet on the triangular lattice. Our analysis, based on a composite fermion representation, yields several phases. This includes a zero-temperature helical spin liquid with $N=6$ {\it anisotropic} Dirac cones, and with nonzero vector chirality implying a broken $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry. It is terminated at $T=0$ by a continuous quantum phase transition to $120^\circ$ ordered state around $J_2/J_1\approx0.089$ in the XX limit; these phases share a double degeneracy, which persists to finite $T$ above th…
Using the natural orbitals renormalization group, we studied the problem of a localized spin- 1/2 impurity coupled to two helical liquids via the Kondo interaction in a quantum spin Hall insulator, based on the Kane-Mele model defined in a finite zigzag graphene nanoribbon. We investigated the influence of the Kondo couplings with the helical liquids on both the static and dynamic properties of the ground state. The number and distinct spatial structures of the active natural orbitals (ANOs), which play essential roles in constructing the ground-state wave function, were first analyzed. Our nu…
In one-dimensional (1D) systems, electronic interactions lead to a breakdown of Fermi liquid theory and the formation of a Tomonaga-Luttinger Liquid (TLL). The strength of its many-body correlations can be quantified by a single dimensionless parameter, the Luttinger parameter $K$, characterising the competition between the electrons' kinetic and electrostatic energies. Recently, signatures of a TLL have been reported for the topological edge states of quantum spin Hall (QSH) insulators, strictly 1D electronic structures with linear (Dirac) dispersion and spin-momentum locking. Here we show th…
We consider a helical spin liquid system which shows majorana fermion modes at the edge. The interaction between the quasiparticles in this system induces phase transition, Majorana-Ising transition. We comply the density matrix renormalization group method to study this phase transition for the entire regime of the parameter space. We observe the presence of topological quantum phase transition for repulsive interaction, however this phase is more stable for the attractive interaction. The length scale dependent study shows many new and important results and we show explicitly that the major …
One-dimensional (1D) electron systems in the presence of Coulomb interaction are described by Luttinger liquid theory. The strength of Coulomb interaction in the Luttinger liquid, as parameterized by the Luttinger parameter K, is in general difficult to measure. This is because K is usually hidden in powerlaw dependencies of observables as a function of temperature or applied bias. We propose a dynamical way to measure K on the basis of an electronic time-of-flight experiment. We argue that the helical Luttinger liquid at the edge of a 2D topological insulator constitutes a preeminently suited…
We study strongly correlated helical liquids with and without Rashba coupling using quantum Monte Carlo simulations of the Kane-Mele model with a Hubbard interaction at the edge. Independent of the Rashba coupling, we find that interactions enhance spin correlations and suppress the spectral weight at the Fermi level. For sufficiently strong interactions, a gap can be observed in the single-particle spectral function. However, based on a finite-size scaling analysis and theoretical arguments, we argue that this gap is closed by order parameter fluctuations in the Luttinger liquid phase even at…
We map an interacting helical liquid system, coupled to an external magnetic field and s-wave superconductor, to an XYZ spin system, and it undergoes Majorana-Ising transition by tuning of parameters. In the Majorana state, lowest excitation gap decays exponentially with system size, and the system has degenerate ground state in the thermodynamic limit. On the contrary, the gap opens in the Ising phase even in the thermodynamic limit. We also study other criteria to characterize the transition, such as edge spin correlation with its neighbor $C(r=1)$, local susceptibility $χ_i$, superconductin…
We show that the combination of a Dresselhaus interaction and a spatially periodic Rashba interaction leads to the formation of a helical liquid in a quantum wire when the electron-electron interaction is weakly screened. The effect is sustained by a helicity-dependent effective band gap which depends on the size of the Dresselhaus and Rashba spin-orbit couplings. We propose a design for a semiconductor device in which the helical liquid can be realized and probed experimentally.
Helical Luttinger liquids, appearing at the edge of two-dimensional topological insulators, represent a new paradigm of one-dimensional systems, where peculiar quantum phenomena can be investigated. Motivated by recent experiments on charge fractionalization, we propose a setup based on helical Luttinger liquids that allows to time-resolve, in addition to charge fractionalization, also spin-charge separation and pure spin fractionalization. This is due to the combined presence of spin-momentum locking and interactions. We show that electric time-resolved measurements can reveal both charge and…
We provide analytic expressions for the Green's functions in position-frequency space as well as for the tunneling density of states of various Luttinger liquids at zero temperature: the standard spinless and spinful Luttinger liquids, the helical Luttinger liquid at the edge of a topological insulator, and the Luttinger liquid that appears either together with an ordering transition of nuclear spins in a one-dimensional conductor, or in spin-orbit split quantum wires in an external magnetic field. The latter system is often used to mimic a helical Luttinger liquid, yet we show here that it ex…
Cold interacting fermions in two dimensions form exactly solvable Luttinger liquids, whose characteristic scaling exponents differ from those of conventional Fermi liquids. We use the AdS/CFT correspondence to discuss an equivalence between a class of helical, strongly coupled Luttinger liquids and fermions propagating in the background of a 3D black hole. The microscopic Lagrangian is explicitly known and the construction is fully embeddable in string theory. The retarded Green function at low temperature and energy arises from the geometry very near the black hole horizon. This structure is …
The properties of the strongly interacting edge states of two dimensional topological insulators in the presence of two particle backscattering are investigated. We find an anomalous behavior of the density-density correlation functions, which show oscillations that are neither of Friedel nor of Wigner type: they instead represent a Wigner crystal of fermions of fractional charge e/2, with e the electron charge. By studying the Fermi operator, we show that the state characterized by such fractional oscillations still bears the signatures of spin momentum locking. Finally, we compare the spin-s…
We propose and study the charge transport through single and double quantum point contacts setup between helical Majorana modes and an interacting helical Luttinger liquid. We show that the differential conductance decreases for stronger repulsive interactions and that the point contacts become insulating above a critical interaction strength. For a single point contact, the differential conductance as a function of bias voltage shows a series of peaks due to Andreev reflection of electrons in the Majorana modes. In the case of two point contacts, interference phenomena make the structure of t…
We demonstrate the possibility to induce and control peculiar spin textures in a helical Luttinger liquid, by means of a time-dependent magnetic scatterer. The presence of a perturbation that breaks the time-reversal symmetry opens a gap in the spectrum, inducing single-particle backscattering and a peculiar spin response. We show that in the weak backscattering regime asymmetric spin textures emerge at the left and right side of the scatterer, whose spatial oscillations are controlled by the ratio between the magnetization frequency and the Fermi energy and by the electron interaction. This p…
We show that the paradigmatic Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) description of two local magnetic moments coupled to propagating electrons breaks down in helical Luttinger Liquids when the electron interaction is stronger than some critical value. In this novel regime, the Kondo effect overwhelms the RKKY interaction over all macroscopic inter-impurity distances. This phenomenon is a direct consequence of the helicity (realized, for instance, at edges of a time-reversal invariant topological insulator) and does not take place in usual (non-helical) Luttinger Liquids.
We analyze the time evolution of spin-polarized electron wave packets injected into the edge states of a two-dimensional topological insulator. In the presence of electron interactions, the system is described as a helical Luttinger liquid and injected electrons fractionalize. However, because of the presence of metallic detectors, no evidences of fractionalization are encoded in dc measurements, and in this regime the system do not show deviations from its non-interacting behavior. Nevertheless, we show that the helical Luttinger liquid nature emerges in the transient dynamics, where signatur…
The combined effect of Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit interactions on the physics of a helical Luttinger liquid coupled to a Kondo impurity is studied. A Rashba coupling can potentially destroy the Kondo singlet formation in certain parameter regimes [Phys. Rev. B 86, 161103(R) (2012)]. This effect is here shown to vanish for sufficiently strong Dresselhaus interaction. The transport properties of the system are investigated by calculating electrical conductance, current and current fluctuations, and thermal conductance.
The electrical resistivity of several relatively clean metallic ferromagnets, as well as the helimagnet MnSi, is commonly observed to exhibit non-Fermi-liquid behavior at low temperatures. This behavior, which is found in both ordered and disordered phases, and both near and away from the magnetic transition, remains a major unsolved problem. We derive and discuss three novel mechanisms underlying such behavior that are based on electron scattering mediated by the exchange of (1) ferromagnons or (2) skyrmionic fluctuations, both in conjunction with weak disorder, or (3) helimagnons in clean sy…
We study one dimensional wires with spin-orbit coupling. We show that in the presence of Zeeman field and strong electron-electron interaction a clean wire may form fractional helical liquid states with phenomenology similar to fractional quantum Hall liquids. Most notably, the wire's two terminal conductance is predicted to show fractional quantized conductance plateaus at low electron density. When the system is proximity-coupled to a superconductor, fractional Majorana bound states may be stabilized. We discuss how disorder destabilizes these fractional phases. Possible experimental realiza…
We propose a three terminal spin polarized stm setup for probing the helical nature of the Luttinger liquid edge state that appears in the quantum spin Hall system. We show that the three-terminal tunneling conductance strongly depends on the angle ($θ$) between the magnetization direction of the tip and the local orientation of the electron spin on the edge while the two terminal conductance is independent of this angle. We demonstrate that chiral injection of an electron into the helical Luttinger liquid (which occurs when $θ$ is zero or $π$) is associated with fractionalization of the spin …
In the context of one-dimensional fermionic systems, helical Luttiger liquids are not only characterized by intriguing spin properties, but also by the possibility to be manipulated by means of electrostatic gates, exploiting finite Rashba coupling. We use this property to show that a heterostructure composed of a helical Luttinger liquid, contacted to two metallic leads and supplemented by top gates, can be used as a tunable thermal valve. By relying on bosonization techniques and scattering of plasmonic modes, we investigate the performance of this valve with respect to electron-electron int…
Non-equilibrium transport properties of charge and spin sector of two edges of a quantum spin Hall insulator are investigated theoretically in a four-terminal configuration. A simple duality relation between charge and spin sector is found for two helical Tomonaga Luttinger liquids (hTTLs) connected to non-interacting electron reservoirs. If the hTLLs on opposite edges are coupled locally or non-locally, the mixing between them yields interesting physics where spin information can be easily detected by a charge measurement and vice versa. Particularly, we show how a pure spin density in the ab…
We theoretically study Coulomb drag between two helical edges with broken spin-rotational symmetry, such as would occur in two capacitively coupled quantum spin Hall insulators. For the helical edges, Coulomb drag is particularly interesting because it specifically probes the inelastic interactions that break the conductance quantization for a single edge. Using the kinetic equation formalism, supplemented by bosonization, we find that the drag resistivity $ρ_D$ exhibits a nonmonotonic dependence on the temperature $T$. In the limit of low $T$, $ρ_D$ vanishes with decreasing $T$ as a power law…
We study four-terminal junction of spinless Luttinger liquid wires, which describes either a corner junction of two helical edges states of topological insulators or the tunneling from the spinful wire into the helical edge state. We use the fermionic representation and the scattering state formalism, in order to compute the renormalization group (RG) equations for the linear response conductances. We establish our approach by considering a junction between two possibly non-equivalent helical edge states and find an agreement with the earlier analysis of this situation. Tunneling from the tip …
The insertion of a magnetic $π$ flux into a quantum spin Hall insulator creates four localized, spin-charge separated states: the charge and spin fluxons with either charge $Q=\pm1$ or spin $S_z=\pm1/2$, respectively. In the presence of repulsive Coulomb interactions, the charged states are gapped out and a local moment is formed. We consider the Kane-Mele-Hubbard model on a ribbon with zigzag edges to construct an impurity model where the spin fluxon is screened by the helical edge liquid. In the noninteracting model, the hybridization between fluxon and edge states is dominated by the extent…
We theoretically investigate the tunneling spectroscopy of a system of two parallel one-dimensional helical conductors in the interacting, Luttinger liquid regime. We calculate the non-linear differential conductance as a function of the voltage bias between the conductors and the orbital momentum shift induced on tunneling electrons by an orthogonal magnetic field. We show that the conductance map exhibits an interference pattern which is characteristic to the interacting helical liquid. This can be contrasted with the different interference pattern from tunneling between regular Luttinger li…
Following the recent observation of the quantum spin Hall (QSH) effect in HgTe quantum wells, an important issue is to understand the effect of impurities on transport in the QSH regime. Using linear response and renormalization group methods, we calculate the edge conductance of a QSH insulator as a function of temperature in the presence of a magnetic impurity. At high temperatures, Kondo and/or two-particle scattering give rise to a logarithmic temperature dependence. At low temperatures, for weak Coulomb interactions in the edge liquid the conductance is restored to unitarity with unusual …
Domain walls in fractional quantum Hall ferromagnets are gapless helical one-dimensional channels formed at the boundaries of topologically distinct quantum Hall (QH) liquids. Naïvely, these helical domain walls (hDWs) constitute two counter-propagating chiral states with opposite spins. Coupled to an s-wave superconductor, helical channels are expected to lead to topological superconductivity with high order non-Abelian excitations. Here we investigate transport properties of hDWs in the $ν=2/3$ fractional QH regime. Experimentally we found that current carried by hDWs is substantially smalle…
The combination of Rashba spin-orbit coupling and potential disorder induces a random current operator for the edge states of a 2D topological insulator. We prove that charge transport through such an edge is ballistic at any temperature, with or without Luttinger liquid interactions. The solution exploits a mapping to a spin 1/2 in a time-dependent field that preserves the projection along one randomly undulating component (integrable dynamics). Our result is exact and rules out random Rashba backscattering as a source of temperature-dependent transport, absent integrability-breaking terms.
We investigate theoretically the nonequilibrium finite-frequency current noise in a four-terminal quantum point contact of interacting helical edge states at a finite bias voltage. Special focus is put on the effects of the single-particle and two-particle scattering between the two helical edge states on the fractional charge quasiparticle excitations shown in the nonequilibrium current noise spectra. Via the Keldysh perturbative approach, we find that the effects of the single-particle and the two-particle scattering processes on the current noise depend sensitively on the Luttinger liquid p…
We investigate electronic correlation effects on edge states of quantum spin-Hall insulators within the Kane-Mele-Hubbard model by means of quantum Monte Carlo simulations. Given the U(1) spin symmetry and time-reversal invariance, the low-energy theory is the helical Tomanaga-Luttinger model, with forward scattering only. For weak to intermediate interactions, this model correctly describes equal-time spin and charge correlations, including their doping dependence. As apparent from the Drude weight, bulk states become relevant in the presence of electron-electron interactions, rendering the f…
We develop a theory of finite-temperature momentum-resolved tunneling spectroscopy (MRTS) for disordered, interacting two-dimensional topological-insulator edges. The MRTS complements conventional electrical transport measurement in characterizing the properties of the helical Luttinger liquid edges. Using standard bosonization technique, we study low-energy spectral function and the MRTS tunneling current, providing a detailed description controlled by disorder, interaction, and temperature, taking into account Rashba spin orbit coupling, interedge interaction and distinct edge velocities. Ou…
Transport in an ideal two-dimensional quantum spin Hall device is dominated by the counterpropagating edge states of electrons with opposite spins, giving the universal value of the conductance, $2e^2/h$. We study the effect on the conductance of a magnetic impurity, which can backscatter an electron from one edge state to the other. In the case of isotropic Kondo exchange we find that the correction to the electrical conductance caused by such an impurity vanishes in the dc limit, while the thermal conductance does acquire a finite correction due to the spin-flip backscattering.
The occurrence of two-particle inelastic backscattering has been conjectured in helical edge states of topological insulators and is expected to alter transport. In this Letter, by using a renormalization group approach, we provide a microscopic derivation of this process, in the presence of a time-reversal invariant Rashba impurity potential. Unlike previous approaches to the problem, we are able to prove that such an effect only occurs in the presence of electron-electron interactions. Furthermore, we find that the linear conductance as a function of temperature exhibits a crossover between …
The combination of the time-reversal-symmetric single-particle backscattering field (commonly known as Rashba spin-orbit coupling) and non-backscattering electron interactions is generally expected to produce inelastic backscattering in 1D helical electron liquids at the edge of 2D topological insulators, as theoretically predicted in a number of works. An opposite conclusion of absent backscattering was reached in a recent work [H.-Y. Xie et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 086603 (2016)] for the "local" model of the backscattering field and interactions. Motivated to resolve this potential controv…
We study the quantum point contact between the topological superconductor and the helical Luttinger liquid. The effects of the electron-electron interactions in the helical Luttinger liquid on the low-energy physics of this system are analyzed by the renormalization group. Among the various couplings at the point contact which arise from the tunneling via the Majorana edge channel, the induced backscattering in the helical Luttinger liquid is the most relevant for repulsive interactions. Hence, at low temperatures, the helical Luttinger liquid is effectively cut into two separated half wires. …
We study the RKKY interaction mediated by the helical edge states of a quantum spin Hall insulator in the presence of the Rashba spin-orbital coupling induced by an external electric field and the electron-electron interaction. We show that in the presence of the Rashba coupling, the RKKY interaction induced by the helical edge states contains not only the Heisenberg-like and the Dzyaloshinskii-Moria terms but also the nematic-type term that is not present originally, with the range functions depending on the strength of the Rashba coupling. We also show that the electron-electron interaction …
Ballistic transport of helical edge modes in two-dimensional topological insulators is protected by time-reversal symmetry. Recently it was pointed out [1] that coupling of non-interacting helical electrons to an array of randomly anisotropic Kondo impurities can lead to a spontaneous breaking of the symmetry and, thus, can remove this protection. We have analyzed effects of the interaction between the electrons using a combination of the functional and the Abelian bosonization approaches. The suppression of the ballistic transport turns out to be robust in a broad range of the interaction str…
We consider a helical system of fermions with a generic spin (or pseudospin) orbit coupling. Using the equation of motion approach for the single-particle distribution functions, and a mean-field decoupling of the higher order distribution functions, we find a closed form for the charge and spin density fluctuations in terms of the charge and spin density linear response functions. Approximating the nonlocal exchange term with a Hubbard-like local-field factor, we obtain coupled spin and charge density response matrix beyond the random phase approximation, whose poles give the dispersion of fo…
We study a steady state non-equilibrium transport between two interacting helical edge states of a two dimensional topological insulator, described by helical Luttinger liquids, through a quantum dot. For non-interacting dot the current is obtained analytically by including the self-energy correction to the dot Green's function. For interacting dot we use equation of motion method to study the influence of weak on-site Coulomb interaction on the transport. We find the metal-to-insulator quantum phase transition for attractive or repulsive interactions in the leads when the magnitude of the int…
We discuss a platform for the synthetic realization of key physical properties of helical Tomonaga Luttinger liquids (HTLLs) with ultracold fermionic atoms in one-dimensional optical lattices. The HTLL is a strongly correlated metallic state where spin polarization and propagation direction of the itinerant particles are locked to each other. We propose an unconventional one-dimensional Fermi-Hubbard model which, at quarter filling, resembles the HTLL in the long wavelength limit, as we demonstrate with a combination of analytical (bosonization) and numerical (density matrix renormalization gr…
Landau's phenomenological theory of Fermi liquids is a fundamental paradigm in many-body physics that has been remarkably successful in explaining the properties of a wide range of interacting fermion systems, such as liquid helium-3, nuclear matter, and electrons in metals. The d-dimensional boundaries of (d+1)-dimensional topological phases of matter such as quantum Hall systems and topological insulators provide new types of many-fermion systems that are topologically distinct from conventional d-dimensional many-fermion systems. We construct a phenomenological Landau theory for the two-dim…
We present a comprehensive analysis of high resolution neutron scattering data involving Neutron Spin Echo spectroscopy and Spherical Polarimetry which confirm the first order nature of the helical transition and reveal the existence of a new spin liquid skyrmion phase. Similar to the blue phases of liquid crystals this phase appears in a very narrow temperature range between the low temperature helical and the high temperature paramagnetic phases.
The helical edge states of time-reversal invariant two-dimensional topological insulators are protected against backscattering in idealized models. In more realistic scenarios with a shallow confining potential at the sample boundary, additional strongly interacting edge states may arise, that could interfere with the topological protection of edge conduction. We find that interaction effects within the reconstructed edges are well described by the Luttinger liquid model. While interactions between this Luttinger liquid and the helical edge states can in principle give rise to dynamical spin p…
We study a quantum dot coupled to two edge states of a quantum spin Hall insulator through electron tunnelings in the presence of a Rashba spin-orbital interaction induced by an external electric field. We show that if the electron interactions on the edge states are repulsive, there are two possible phases, depending on the Luttinger liquid parameter $K$. For $1/2<K<1$, the low-temperature physics is controlled by a previously identified two-channel Kondo fixed point. For the edge states with even stronger repulsive interactions, i.e. $1/4<K<1/2$, the system reaches another phase at low tempe…
We demonstrate the equivalence between two distinct Luttinger liquid impurity problems. The first concerns a one-dimensional topological superconductor coupled at one end to the ends of two single channel Luttinger liquids. The second concerns a point contact in the quantum spin Hall effect, where four helical Luttinger liquids meet at a point. Both problems have been studied previously and exhibit several stable phases depending on the Luttinger parameter K, that can be characterized in terms of simple conformally invariant boundary conditions describing perfect normal (or Andreev) transmissi…
Helical Edge Transport in the ν= 0 Quantum Hall Ferromagnetic State of an Organic Dirac Fermion System
University of Tokyo（东京大学）；Institute for Solid State Physics, University of Tokyo（东京大学固体物理研究所）；National Institute for Materials Science（国立材料科学研究所）；Ewha Womans University（梨花女子大学）
We investigate the quasiparticle excitations in the FFLO- type helical state of a superconductor with inversion-symmetry breaking and strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling. We restrict to a state with single finite momentum of Cooper pairs in the helical phase that is determined by minimization of the condensation energy. We derive the dependence of quasiparticle dispersions on the Rashba coupling strength and external field. It leads to a peculiar momentum-space segmentation of the corresponding Rashba Fermi surface sheets which has not yet been observed experimentally. We show that it may be dir…
In a variety of rare-earth based compounds singlet superconductivity coexists with helical magnetism. Here we demonstrate that surfaces of these systems should generically host a finite density of zero-energy Majorana modes. In the limit of vanishing disorder, these modes lead to a divergent contribution to zero-energy density of states and to zero-temperature entropy proportional to the sample surface area. When confined to a wire geometry, a discrete number of Majorana modes can be isolated. The relatively large characteristic energy scales for superconductivity and magnetism, compared to ot…
We study one-dimensional Kondo Lattices (KL) which consist of itinerant electrons interacting with Kondo impurities (KI) - localized quantum magnetic moments. We focus on KL with isotropic exchange interaction between electrons and KI and with a high KI density. The latter determines the principal róle of the indirect interaction between KI for the low energy physics. Namely, the Kondo physics becomes suppressed and all properties are governed by spin ordering. We present a first-ever comprehensive analytical theory of such KL at an arbitrary doping and predict a variety of regimes with differ…
A quantum spin Hall insulator is a two-dimensional state of matter consisting of an insulating bulk and one-dimensional helical edge states. While these edge states are topologically protected against elastic backscattering in the presence of disorder, interaction-induced inelastic terms may yield a finite conductivity. By using a kinetic equation approach, we find the backscattering rate $τ^{-1}$ and the semiclassical conductivity in the regimes of high ($ω\gg τ^{-1}$) and low ($ω\ll τ^{-1}$) frequency. By comparing the two limits, we find that the parametric dependence of conductivity is des…
Electrons on the surface of a strong topological insulator, such as Bi2Te3 or Bi1-xSnx, form a topologically protected helical liquid whose excitation spectrum contains an odd number of massless Dirac fermions. A theoretical survey and classification is given of the universal features, observable by the ordinary and spin-polarized scanning tunneling spectroscopy, in the interference patterns resulting from the quasiparticle scattering by magnetic and non-magnetic impurities in such a helical liquid. Our results confirm the absence of backscattering from non-magnetic impurities observed in rece…
