Interacting Surface States of Three-Dimensional Topological Insulators

Titus Neupert, Stephan Rachel, Ronny Thomale, and Martin Greiter
Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 017001 – Published 29 June 2015

Abstract

We numerically investigate the surface states of a strong topological insulator in the presence of strong electron-electron interactions. We choose a spherical topological insulator geometry to make the surface amenable to a finite size analysis. The single-particle problem maps to that of Landau orbitals on the sphere with a magnetic monopole at the center that has unit strength and opposite sign for electrons with opposite spin. Assuming density-density contact interactions, we find superconducting and anomalous (quantum) Hall phases for attractive and repulsive interactions, respectively, as well as chiral fermion and chiral Majorana fermion boundary modes between different phases. Our setup is preeminently adapted to the search for topologically ordered surface terminations that could be microscopically stabilized by tailored surface interaction profiles.

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  • Received 16 December 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.017001

© 2015 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Titus Neupert1, Stephan Rachel2, Ronny Thomale3, and Martin Greiter3

  • 1Princeton Center for Theoretical Science, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
  • 2Institute for Theoretical Physics, Technische Universität Dresden, 01171 Dresden, Germany
  • 3Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, D-97074 Würzburg, Germany

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Issue

Vol. 115, Iss. 1 — 3 July 2015

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