Gauge-field fluctuations in 3D topological Mott insulators

Abstract

We study the low-energy properties of three-dimensional (3D) topological Mott insulators which can be viewed as strong topological insulators of spinons interacting with a three-dimensional gauge field. The low-energy behavior of such systems is dominated by the two-dimensional (2D) gapless surface spinons coupled to the bulk gauge field. We find that a dimensional crossover from 3D to 2D in the gauge field fluctuations may occur as the systems thickness and/or temperature is varied. In the thin sample limit, the gauge field fluctuations effectively become 2D and the problem becomes analogous to the standard 2D spinon-gauge field theory. In the 3D limit, the bulk gauge field fluctuations lead to a low-energy theory for the coupled system that is more controlled than for the pure 2D case. We discuss various experimental signatures such as the heat capacity scaling as T ln 1/T as well as modified Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yoshida interactions on the surface.

12 pages, 4 figures; v2 published version

References in corpus (43)

• Quantum Spin Hall Effect in Graphene
• Quantum Spin Hall Effect and Topological Phase Transition in HgTe Quantum Wells
• $Z_2$ Topological Order and the Quantum Spin Hall Effect
• Quantum Spin Hall Insulator State in HgTe Quantum Wells
• Topological Insulators in Three Dimensions
• Topological Insulators with Inversion Symmetry
• Discovery (theoretical prediction and experimental observation) of a large-gap topological-insulator class with spin-polarized single-Dirac-cone on the surface
• A topological Dirac insulator in a quantum spin Hall phase : Experimental observation of first strong topological insulator
• Topological Field Theory of Time-Reversal Invariant Insulators
• Topological invariants of time-reversal-invariant band structures
• Quantum Spin Hall Effect
• First observation of Spin-Momentum Helical Locking in Bi2Se3 and Bi2Te3, demonstration of Topological-Order at 300K and a realization of topological-transport-regime
• The quantum spin Hall effect and topological insulators
• Mott physics and band topology in materials with strong spin-orbit interaction
• Three dimensional topological invariants for time reversal invariant Hamiltonians and the three dimensional quantum spin Hall effect
• Seeing the magnetic monopole through the mirror of topological surface states
• Magnetoelectric polarizability and axion electrodynamics in crystalline insulators
• Time Reversal Polarization and a Z_2 Adiabatic Spin Pump
• Magnetic impurities on the surface of a topological insulator
• Quantum spin Hall effect in a transition metal oxide Na2IrO3
• Quantum phase transitions of metals in two spatial dimensions: I. Ising-nematic order
• Low energy effective theory of Fermi surface coupled with U(1) gauge field in 2+1 dimensions
• On the low energy properies of fermions with singular interactions
• Fractional topological insulators
• Topological Insulators and Mott Physics from the Hubbard Interaction
• On the $Z_2$ classification of Quantum Spin Hall Models
• Slave-rotor mean field theories of strongly correlated systems and the Mott transition in finite dimensions
• Topological insulators and metal-insulator transition in the pyrochlore iridates
• Non-Fermi Liquid Fixed Point in 2+1 Dimensions
• Low Energy Dynamics of the Spinon-Gauge System
• Theory of a continuous Mott transition in two dimensions
• Collective modes of a helical liquid
• Gauge-invariant response functions of fermions coupled to a gauge field
• Quantum critical behavior in itinerant electron systems -- Eliashberg theory and instability of a ferromagnetic quantum-critical point
• Renormalization Group Approach to Low Temperature Properties of a Non-Fermi Liquid Metal
• Witten effect in a crystalline topological insulator
• Mott transition between a spin-liquid insulator and a metal in three dimensions
• Quantum Boltzmann equation of composite fermions interacting with a gauge field
• Magnetoelectric Response of the Time-Reversal Invariant Helical Metal
• A Fractionalized Quantum Spin Hall Effect
• Spin Helix of Magnetic Impurities in Two-dimensional Helical Metal
• Fermionic propagators for 2D systems with singular interactions
• Specific heat and validity of quasiparticle approximation in the half-filled Landau level

Cited by in corpus (35)

• Correlated quantum phenomena in the strong spin-orbit regime
• Topological Phase Transition and Texture Inversion in a Tunable Topological Insulator
• Topological and magnetic phases of interacting electrons in the pyrochlore iridates
• Interacting topological insulators: a review
• Recent progress on correlated electron systems with strong spin-orbit coupling
• Quantum Spin Hall Insulators with Interactions and Lattice Anisotropy
• Correlation effects on 3D topological phases: from bulk to boundary
• Competing Exotic Topological Insulator Phases in Transition Metal Oxides on the Pyrochlore Lattice with Distortion
• Fractionalized Topological Insulators
• Breakdown of the topological classification Z for gapped phases of noninteracting fermions by quartic interactions
• Pyrochlore electrons under pressure, heat and field: shedding light on the iridates
• Magnetic ordering phenomena of interacting quantum spin Hall models
• The iridium double perovskite Sr2YIrO6 revisited: A combined structural and specific heat study
• Topological phases in layered pyrochlore oxide thin films along the [111] direction
• Comparative studies of low temperature X-ray diffraction experiments on R2Ir2O7 (R = Nd, Eu, and Pr)
• Lattice distortion effects on topological phases in (LaNiO${}_3$)${}_2$/(LaAlO${}_3$)${}_N$ heterostructures grown along the [111] direction
• Fractional topological phases in three-dimensional coupled-wire systems
• Unusual magnetic phases in the strong interaction limit of two-dimensional topological band insulators in transition metal oxides
• Models of three-dimensional fractional topological insulators
• Topological magnetic excitations
• Topological Insulators and Quantum Spin Liquids
• Dimensional crossover and cold-atom realization of topological Mott insulators
• Doping the Kane-Mele-Hubbard model: A Slave-Boson Approach
• Classification of spin liquids on the square lattice with strong spin-orbit coupling
• Correlation effects in pyrochlore iridate thin films grown along the $[111]$ direction
• Pr${}_2$Ir${}_2$O${}_7$: when Luttinger semimetal meets Melko-Hertog-Gingras spin ice state
• Topological Phases in Oxide Heterostructures with Light and Heavy Transition Metal Ions
• Anisotropic Quantum Spin Hall Effect, Spin-Orbital Textures and Mott Transition
• Surface Majorana fermions and bulk collective modes in superfluid 3He-B
• Fractionalized topological insulators from frustrated spin models in three dimensions
• Fractional topological insulators of Cooper pairs induced by proximity effect
• Experimental signatures of 3d fractional topological insulators
• Effective theory of fractional topological insulators in two spatial dimensions
• How Do You Want That Insulator?
• Spatially anisotropic kagome antiferromagnet with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction