No Arabic abstract
We derive an effective field theory model for magnetic topological insulators and predict that a magnetic electronic gap persists on the surface for temperatures above the ordering temperature of the bulk. Our analysis also applies to interfaces of heterostructures consisting of a ferromagnetic and a topological insulator. In order to make quantitative predictions for MnBi$_2$Te$_4$, and for EuS-Bi$_2$Se$_3$ heterostructures, we combine the effective field theory method with density functional theory and Monte Carlo simulations. For MnBi$_2$Te$_4$ we predict an upwards Neel temperature shift at the surface up to $15 %$, while the EuS-Bi$_2$Se$_3$ interface exhibits a smaller relative shift. The effective theory also predicts induced Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions and a topological magnetoelectric effect, both of which feature a finite temperature and chemical potential dependence.
As new kinds of stabilizer code models, fracton models have been promising in realizing quantum memory or quantum hard drives. However, it has been shown that the fracton topological order of 3D fracton models occurs only at zero temperature. In this Letter, we show that higher dimensional fracton models can support a fracton topological order below a nonzero critical temperature $T_c$. Focusing on a typical 4D X-cube model, we show that there is a finite critical temperature $T_c$ by analyzing its free energy from duality. We also obtained the expectation value of the t Hooft loops in the 4D X-cube model, which directly shows a confinement-deconfinement phase transition at finite temperature. This finite-temperature phase transition can be understood as spontaneously breaking the $mathbb{Z}_2$ one-form subsystem symmetry. Moreover, we propose a new no-go theorem for finite-temperature quantum fracton topological order.
Motivated by the discovery of the quantum anomalous Hall effect in Cr-doped ce{(Bi,Sb)2Te3} thin films, we study the generic states for magnetic topological insulators and explore the physical properties for both magnetism and itinerant electrons. First-principles calculations are exploited to investigate the magnetic interactions between magnetic Co atoms adsorbed on the ce{Bi2Se3} (111) surface. Due to the absence of inversion symmetry on the surface, there are Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya-like twisted spin interactions between the local moments of Co ions. These nonferromagnetic interactions twist the collinear spin configuration of the ferromagnet and generate various magnetic orders beyond a simple ferromagnet. Among them, the spin spiral state generates alternating counterpropagating modes across each period of spin states, and the skyrmion lattice even supports a chiral mode around the core of each skyrmion. The skyrmion lattice opens a gap at the surface Dirac point, resulting in the anomalous Hall effect. These results may inspire further experimental investigation of magnetic topological insulators.
Two-dimensional higher-order topological insulators can display a number of exotic phenomena such as half-integer charges localized at corners or disclination defects. In this paper, we analyze these phenomena, focusing on the paradigmatic example of the quadrupole insulator with $C_4$ rotation symmetry, and present a topological field theory description of the mixed geometry-charge responses. Our theory provides a unified description of the corner and disclination charges in terms of a physical geometry (which encodes disclinations), and an effective geometry (which encodes corners). We extend this analysis to interacting systems, and predict the response of fractional quadrupole insulators, which exhibit charge $e/2(2k+1)$ bound to corners and disclinations.
We show that lattices with higher-order topology can support corner-localized bound states in the continuum (BICs). We propose a method for the direct identification of BICs in condensed matter settings and use it to demonstrate the existence of BICs in a concrete lattice model. Although the onset for these states is given by corner-induced filling anomalies in certain topological crystalline phases, additional symmetries are required to protect the BICs from hybridizing with their degenerate bulk states. We demonstrate the protection mechanism for BICs in this model and show how breaking this mechanism transforms the BICs into higher-order topological resonances. Our work shows that topological states arising from the bulk-boundary correspondence in topological phases are more robust than previously expected, expanding the search space for crystalline topological phases to include those with boundary-localized BICs or resonances.
Higher order topological insulators (HOTIs) are a novel form of insulating quantum matter, which are characterized by having gapped boundaries that are separated by gapless corner or hinge states. Recently, it has been proposed that the essential features of a large class of HOTIs are captured by topological multipolar response theories. In this work, we show that these multipolar responses can be realized in interacting lattice models, which conserve both charge and dipole. In this work we study several models in both the strongly interacting and mean-field limits. In $2$D we consider a ring-exchange model which exhibits a quadrupole response, and can be tuned to a $C_4$ symmetric higher order topological phase with half-integer quadrupole moment, as well as half-integer corner charges. We then extend this model to develop an analytic description of adiabatic dipole pumping in an interacting lattice model. The quadrupole moment changes during this pumping process, and if the process is periodic, we show the total change in the quadrupole moment is quantized as an integer. We also consider two interacting $3$D lattice models with chiral hinge modes. We show that the chiral hinge modes are heralds of a recently proposed dipolar Chern-Simons response, which is related to the quadrupole response by dimensional reduction. Interestingly, we find that in the mean field limit, both the $2$D and $3$D interacting models we consider here are equivalent to known models of non-interacting HOTIs (or boundary obstruct