Two spins located at the edge of a quantum spin Hall insulator may interact with each other via indirect spin-exchange interaction mediated by the helical edge states, namely the RKKY interaction, which can be measured by the magnetic correlation between the two spins. By means of the newly developed natural orbitals renormalization group (NORG) method, we investigated the magnetic correlation between two Kondo impurities interacting with the helical edge states, based on the Kane-Mele model defined in a finite zigzag graphene nanoribbon with spin-orbital coupling (SOC). We find that the SOC effect breaks the symmetry in spatial distribution of the magnetic correlation, leading to anisotropy in the RKKY interaction. Specifically, the total correlation is always ferromagnetic (FM) when the two impurities are located at the same sublattice, while it is always antiferromagnetic (AFM) when at the different sublattices. Meanwhile, the behavior of the in-plane correlation is consistent with that of the total correlation. However, the out-of-plane correlation can be tuned from FM to AFM by manipulating either the Kondo coupling or the interimpurity distance. Furthermore, the magnetic correlation is tunable by the SOC, especially that the out-of-plane correlation can be adjusted from FM to AFM by increasing the strength of SOC. Dynamic properties of the system, represented by the spin-staggered excitation spectrum and the spin-staggered susceptibility at the two impurity sites, are finally explored. It is shown that the spin-staggered susceptibility is larger when the two impurities are located at the different sublattices than at the same sublattice, which is consistent with the behavior of the out-of-plane correlation. On the other hand, our study further demonstrates that the NORG is an effective numerical method for studying the quantum impurity systems.
Motivated by work on the bulk topological proximity effect and the topological bootstrap, we consider two coupled layers of quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) insulators with opposite signs of time-reversal breaking, which leads to a trivial band insulator at half-filling. We study the impact of interactions in this model within slave rotor theory, which leads to a layer-selective Mott transition, resulting in a fractionalized quantum anomalous Hall insulator QAH$^*$ where a Chern band insulator coexists with a chiral spin liquid. We also compute the edge electron spectral function in the vicinity o…
We point out and explicitly demonstrate a close connection that exists between featureless Mott insulators and fractional quantum Hall liquids. Using magnetic Wannier states as the single-particle basis in the lowest Landau level (LLL), we demonstrate that the Hamiltonian of interacting bosons in the LLL maps onto a Hamiltonian of a featureless Mott insulator on triangular lattice, formed by the magnetic Wannier states. The Hamiltonian is remarkably simple and consists only of short-range repulsion and ring-exchange terms.
We propose a systematical approach to construct generic fractional quantum anomalous Hall (FQAH) states, which are generalizations of the fractional quantum Hall states to lattice models with zero net magnetic field and full lattice translation symmetry. Local and translationally invariant Hamiltonians can also be constructed, for which the proposed states are unique ground states. Our result demonstrates that generic chiral topologically ordered states can be realized in lattice models, without requiring magnetic translation symmetry and Landau level structure. We further generalize our appro…
The physics of a junction composed of a normal metal, quantum dot and 2D topological insulator (in a quantum spin Hall state) is elucidated. It maifests a subtle combination of Kondo correlations and quantum spin Hall edge states moving on the opposite sides of the 2D topological insulator. In a narrow strip geometry these edge states interact and a gap opens in the edge state spectrum. Consequently, Kondo screening is less effective and that affects electron transport through the junction. Specifically, when edge state coupling is strong enough, the tunneling differential conductance develops…
Phonons are known to generate a thermal Hall effect in certain insulators, including oxides with rare-earth impurities, quantum paraelectrics, multiferroic materials and cuprate Mott insulators. In each case, a special feature of the material is presumed relevant for the underlying mechanism that confers chirality to phonons in a magnetic field. The question is whether a phonon Hall effect is an unusual occurrence - linked to special characteristics such as skew scattering off rare-earth impurities, structural domains, ferroelectricity, ferromagnetism - or a much more common property of insula…
The stability of the kagome-ice insulator against the three dimensionality and the canting angle of the spin anisotropy axes is studied numerically using the exact diagonalization method. The kagome-ice insulator, which was recently found at 2/3 electron filling in the double-exchange model on a kagome lattice, is a Chern insulator showing a quantized Hall response despite the absence of magnetic long-range order. We find that this peculiar state remains stable when the lattice is extended to three dimensions in an anisotropic pyrochlore lattice in the weak interlayer coupling region. On the o…
The Phonon Hall Viscosity is the leading term evincing time-reversal symmetry breaking in the low energy description of lattice phonons. It may generate phonon Berry curvature, and can be observed experimentally through the acoustic Faraday effect and thermal Hall transport. We present a systematic procedure to obtain the phonon Hall viscosity induced by phonon-magnon interactions in magnetic insulators under an external magnetic field. We obtain a general symmetry criterion that leads to non-zero Faraday rotation and Hall conductivity, and clarify the interplay between lattice symmetry, spin-…
We prove a Lieb-Schultz-Mattis theorem for the quantum spin Hall effect (QSHE) in two-dimensional $π$-flux models. In the presence of time reversal, $U(1)$ charge conservation and magnetic translation (with $π$-flux per unit cell) symmetries, if a generic interacting Hamiltonian has a unique gapped symmetric ground state at half filling (i.e. an odd number of electrons per unit cell), it can only be a QSH insulator. In other words, a trivial Mott insulator is forbidden by symmetries at half filling. We further show that such a symmetry-enforced QSHE can be realized in cold atoms, by shaking an…
Three-dimensional topological insulators have protected Dirac-cone surface states. In this paper we propose magnetic field induced topological insulator thin film ordered states in which coherence is established spontaneously between top and bottom surfaces. We find that the large dielectric constants of these materials increases the layer separation range over which coherence survives and decreases the superfluid sound velocity, but has little influence on superfluid density or charge gap. The coherent state at total Landau-level filling factor $ν_T=0$ is predicted to be free of edge modes, q…
We investigate the role of quantum fluctuations in topological quantum phase transitions of quantum spin Hall insulators and quantum anomalous Hall insulators. Employing the variational cluster approximation to obtain the single-particle Green's function of the interacting many-body system, we characterize different phases by direct calculation of the recently proposed topological order parameter for interacting systems. We pinpoint the influence of quantum fluctuations on the quantum spin Hall to Mott insulator transition in several models. Furthermore, we propose a general mechanism by which…
The existence of conserved spin Hall currents is shown in a strongly correlated system without involving spin-orbit coupling. The spin Hall conductivity is determined by intrinsic bulk properties, which remains finite even when the charge resistivity diverges in strong magnetic fields at zero temperature. The state in the latter limit corresponds to a spin Hall insulator. Such a system is a doped Mott insulator described by the phase string theory, and spin Hall effect is predicted to coexist with the Nernst effect to characterize the intrinsic properties of the low-temperature pseudogap phase…
In the framework of dynamical mean field theory (DMFT) we analyze Hall effect in doped Mott insulator as a parent cuprate superconductor. We consider the partial filling (hole doping) of the lower Hubbard band and calculate the dependence of Hall coefficient and Hall number on hole doping, determining the critical concentration for sign change of the Hall coefficient. Significant temperature dependence of Hall effect is noted. A good agreement is demonstrated with concentration dependence of Hall number obtained in experiments in the normal state of YBCO.
In this paper we study two models of symmetry-breaking topological insulators. They are the variants of the d-density wave Hamiltonian proposed by Chakravarty, Laughlin, Morr and Nyack[1] to explain the pseudogap of the cuprates. After doping, both models exhibit an anomalous thermal Hall effect similar to that reported in Ref.[2]. Moreover, they also possess hole pockets centered along the Brillouin zone diagonals consistent with the Hall coefficient measured in Ref.[3].
Strong local interaction in systems with non-trivial topological bands can stabilize quantum states such as magnetic topological insulators. We investigate the influence of the lattice symmetry on the possible emergence of antiferromagnetic quantum Hall states. We consider the spinful Harper-Hofstadter model extended by a next-nearest-neighbor (NNN) hopping which opens a gap at half-filling and allows for the realization of a quantum Hall insulator. The quantum Hall insulator has the Chern number $\mathcal{C}=2$ as both spin components are in the same quantum Hall state. We add to the system a…
We study topological phases in Iridium (Ir) oxide superlattices of orthorhombic perovskite-type grown along the [001] crystallographic axis. Due to strong spin-orbit coupling of Ir 5d-orbitals and electronic correlation effects, Ir oxide bilayer superlattices display topological magnetic insulators exhibiting quantized anomalous Hall effects. Depending on stacking of two layers, we also found a valley Hall insulator with counter-propagating edge currents from two different valleys and a topological crystalline insulator with edge states protected by the crystal lattice symmetry. In a single la…
The nature of a metal-insulator transition tuned by external gates in quantum Hall (QH) systems with point constrictions, as reported in recent experiments of Roddaro et al [1], is examined. We attribute this phenomenon to a splitting of the integer edge into conducting and insulating stripes, the latter wide enough to allow for the stability of the edge structure. Inter-channel impurity scattering and inter-channel Coulomb interactions do not destabilize this picture.
We consider a four-terminal setup of a two-dimensional topological insulator (quantum spin Hall insulator) with local tunneling between the upper and lower edges. The edge modes are modeled as helical Luttinger liquids and the electron-electron interactions are taken into account exactly. Using perturbation theory in the tunneling, we derive the cumulant generating function for the inter-edge current. We show that different possible transport channels give rise to different signatures in the current noise and current cross-correlations, which could be exploited in experiments to elucidate the …
We study the quantum Hall effect in the surface states of topological insulator in the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field in the framework of edge states. Motion of Dirac fermions will form descrete Landau levels, among which a fully saturated zero mode will have different behaviors near the boundary according to the sign of the effective mass for Dirac fermions. The Hall conductance is quantized to be n (n is an integer) in the unit of e^2/h for a positive mass, n+1 for a negative mass, and n+1/2 for massless fermions. In topological insulator the massive term to the Dirac fermions ca…
We investigate the algebraic structure of flat energy bands a partial filling of which may give rise to a fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect (or a fractional Chern insulator) and a fractional quantum spin Hall effect. Both effects arise in the case of a sufficiently flat energy band as well as a roughly flat and homogeneous Berry curvature, such that the global Chern number, which is a topological invariant, may be associated with a local non-commutative geometry. This geometry is similar to the more familiar situation of the fractional quantum Hall effect in two-dimensional electron sys…
Using THz spectroscopy in external magnetic fields we investigate the low-temperature charge dynamics of strained HgTe, a three dimensional topological insulator. From the Faraday rotation angle and ellipticity a complete characterization of the charge carriers is obtained, including the 2D density, the scattering rate and the Fermi velocity. The obtained value of the Fermi velocity provides further evidence for the Dirac character of the carriers in the sample. In resonator experiments, we observe quantum Hall oscillations at THz frequencies. The 2D density estimated from the period of these …
Magneto-transport measurements are performed on two-dimensional GaAs electron systems to probe the quantum Hall (QH) effect at low magnetic fields. Oscillations following the Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) formula are observed in the transition from the insulator to QH liquid when the observed almost temperature-independent Hall slope indicates insignificant interaction correction. Our study shows that the existence of SdH oscillations in such a transition can be understood based on the non-interacting model.
We studied the weak field Hall voltage in 2D electron layers in Si-MOS structures with different mobilities, through the metal-insulator transition. In the vicinity of the critical density on the metallic side of the transition, we have found weak deviations (about 6-20 %) of the Hall voltage from its classical value. The deviations do not correlate with the strong temperature dependence of the diagonal resistivity rho_{xx}(T). The smallest deviation in R_{xy} was found in the highest mobility sample exhibiting the largest variation in the diagonal resistivity ρ_{xx} with temperature (by a fac…
Thermal Hall Resistivity as a Unifying Description of Phonon Thermal Hall Effect in Various Insulators
Nanyang Technological University（南洋理工大学）；National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory（洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室国家高磁场实验室）；National High Magnetic Field Laboratory（国家高磁场实验室）；Institute of Science Tokyo（东京科学大学）；National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology（产业技术综合研究所）
We present theoretical analysis of Hall effect in doped Mott-Hubbard insulator, considered as a prototype of cuprate superconductor. We consider the standard Hubbard model within DMFT approximation. As a typical case we consider the partially filled (hole doping) lower Hubbard band. We calculate the doping dependence of both the Hall coefficient and Hall number and determine the value of carrier concentration, where Hall effect changes its sign. We obtain a significant dependence of Hall effect parameters on temperature. Disorder effects are taken into account in a qualitative way.We also perf…
The quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect has been recently discovered in experiment using thin-film topological insulator with ferromagnetic ordering and strong spin-orbit coupling. Here we investigate the spin degree of freedom of a QAH insulator and uncover a fundamental phenomenon that the edge states exhibit topologically stable spin texture in the boundary when a chiral-like symmetry is present. This result shows that edge states are chiral in both the orbital and spin degrees of freedom, and the chiral edge spin texture corresponds to the bulk topological states of the QAH insulator. We a…
We establish a variational principle for properly mapping a fractional quantum Hall (FQH) state to a fractional Chern insulator (FCI). We find that the mapping has a gauge freedom which could generate a class of FCI ground state wave functions appropriate for different forms of interactions. Therefore, the gauge should be fixed by a variational principle that minimizes the interaction energy of the FCI model. For a soft and isotropic electron-electron interaction, the principle leads to a gauge coinciding with that for maximally localized \emph{two-dimensional} projected Wannier functions of a…
Recent advances in the physics of current-driven antiferromagnetic skyrmions have observed the absence of a Magnus force. We outline the symmetry reasons for this phenomenon, and show that this cancellation will fail in the case of spin polarized currents. Pairing micromagnetic simulations with semiclassical spin wave transport theory, we demonstrate that skyrmions produce a spin-polarized transverse magnon current, and that spin-polarized magnon currents can in turn produce transverse motion of antiferromagnetic skyrmions. We examine qualitative differences in the frequency dependence of the …
We have investigated the thermal Hall effect of magnons for various ferromagnetic insulators. For pyrochlore ferromagnetic insulators Lu$_2$V$_2$O$_7$, Ho$_2$V$_2$O$_7$, and In$_2$Mn$_2$O$_7$, finite thermal Hall conductivities have been observed below the Curie temperature $T_C$ . From the temperature and magnetic field dependences, it is concluded that magnons are responsible for the thermal Hall effect. The Hall effect of magnons can be well explained by the theory based on the Berry curvature in momentum space induced by the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction. The analysis has been ext…
A key feature of the topological surface state under a magnetic field is the presence of the zeroth Landau level at the zero energy. Nonetheless, it has been challenging to probe the zeroth Landau level due to large electron-hole puddles smearing its energy landscape. Here, by developing ultra-low-carrier density topological insulator Sb$_2$Te$_3$ films, we were able to reach an extreme quantum limit of the topological surface state and uncover a hidden phase at the zeroth Landau level. First, we discovered an unexpected quantum-Hall-to-insulator-transition near the zeroth Landau level. Then, …
Electronic states with non-trivial topology host a number of novel phenomena with potential for revolutionizing information technology. The quantum anomalous Hall effect provides spin-polarized dissipation-free transport of electrons, while the quantum spin Hall effect in combination with superconductivity has been proposed as the basis for realizing decoherence-free quantum computing. We introduce a new strategy for realizing these effects, namely by hole and electron doping kagome lattice Mott insulators through, for instance, chemical substitution. As an example, we apply this new approach …
The recently introduced classification of two-dimensional insulators in terms of topological crystalline invariants has been applied so far to "obstructed" atomic insulators characterized by a mismatch between the centers of the electronic Wannier functions and the ionic positions. We extend this notion to quantum spin Hall insulators in which the ground state cannot be described in terms of time-reversal symmetric localized Wannier functions. A system equivalent to graphene in all its relevant electronic and topological properties except for a real-space obstruction is identified and studied …
In this paper, we study $(2+1)$-dimensional quantum anomalous Hall states, i.e. band insulators with quantized Hall conductance, using the exact holographic mapping. The exact holographic mapping is an approach to holographic duality which maps the quantum anomalous Hall state to a different state living in $(3+1)$-dimensional hyperbolic space. By studying topological response properties and the entanglement spectrum, we demonstrate that the holographic dual theory of a quantum anomalous Hall state is a $(3+1)$-dimensional topological insulator. The dual description enables a new characterizat…
Chiral topological insulator (AIII-class) with Landau levels is constructed based on the Nambu 3-algebraic geometry. We clarify the geometric origin of the chiral symmetry of the AIII-class topological insulator in the context of non-commutative geometry of 4D quantum Hall effect. The many-body groundstate wavefunction is explicitly derived as a $(l,l,l-1)$ Laughlin-Halperin type wavefunction with unique $K$-matrix structure. Fundamental excitation is identified with anyonic string-like object with fractional charge ${1}/({1+2(l-1)^2})$. The Hall effect of the chiral topological insulators tur…
We present a 1d lattice model that mimics the boundary of the conventional 2d quantum spin-Hall insulator (QSHI) with $U(1)$ symmetry and time-reversal $T$, satisfying $T^2 = (-1)^F$. Our construction utilizes a local tensor product Hilbert space of finite site dimension with a non-onsite symmetry action. We discuss how several signature properties of the QSHI, such as the fractional charge on $T$-domain walls and Kramers parity switching upon $π$-flux threading, are manifested in our treatment. We also present a 1d Hamiltonian whose ground state realizes the conventional Luttinger-liquid phas…
