Disordered topological metals

Abstract

Topological behavior can be masked when disorder is present. A topological insulator, either intrinsic or interaction induced, may turn gapless when sufficiently disordered. Nevertheless, the metallic phase that emerges once a topological gap closes retains several topological characteristics. By considering the self-consistent disorder-averaged Green function of a topological insulator, we derive the condition for gaplessness. We show that the edge states survive in the gapless phase as edge resonances and that, similar to a doped topological insulator, the disordered topological metal also has a finite, but non-quantized topological index. We then consider the disordered Mott topological insulator. We show that within mean-field theory, the disordered Mott topological insulator admits a phase where the symmetry-breaking order parameter remains non-zero but the gap is closed, in complete analogy to 'gapless superconductivity' due to magnetic disorder.

10 pages, 7 figures

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Cited by in corpus (2)

• Phonon-induced topological insulation
• Pumping conductance, the intrinsic anomalous Hall effect, and statistics of topological invariants