High-Dimensional Topological Insulators with Quaternionic Analytic Landau Levels

Yi Li and Congjun Wu
Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 216802 – Published 21 May 2013
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Abstract

We study the three-dimensional topological insulators in the continuum by coupling spin-1/2 fermions to the Aharonov-Casher SU(2) gauge field. They exhibit flat Landau levels in which orbital angular momentum and spin are coupled with a fixed helicity. The three-dimensional lowest Landau level wave functions exhibit the quaternionic analyticity as a generalization of the complex analyticity of the two-dimensional case. Each Landau level contributes one branch of gapless helical Dirac modes to the surface spectra, whose topological properties belong to the Z2 class. The flat Landau levels can be generalized to an arbitrary dimension. Interaction effects and experimental realizations are also studied.

  • Received 1 April 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.216802

© 2013 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Yi Li and Congjun Wu

  • Department of Physics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA

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Vol. 110, Iss. 21 — 24 May 2013

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