Thermal Hall response: violation of gravitational analogues and Einstein relations

The response of solids to temperature gradients is often described in terms of a gravitational analogue: the effect of a space-dependent temperature is modeled using a space dependent metric. We investigate the validity of this approach in describing the bulk response of quantum Hall states and other gapped chiral topological states. To this end, we consider the prototypical Haldane model in two different cases of (i) a space-dependent electrostatic potential and gravitational potential and (ii) a space-dependent temperature and chemical potential imprinted by a weak coupling to non-interacting electron baths. We find that the thermal analogue is textit{invalid}; while a space dependent gravitational potential induces transverse energy currents proportional to the third derivative of the gravitational potential, the response to an analogous temperature profile vanishes in limit of weak coupling to the thermal bath. Similarly, the Einstein relation, the analogy between the electrostatic potential and the internal chemical potential, is not valid in such a setup.

Analytical and Numerical study of the out-of-equilibrium current through a helical edge coupled to a magnetic impurity

We study the conductance of a time-reversal symmetric helical electronic edge coupled antiferromagnetically to a magnetic impurity, employing analytical and numerical approaches. The impurity can reduce the perfect conductance $G_0$ of a noninteracting helical edge by generating a backscattered current. The backscattered steady-state current tends to vanish below the Kondo temperature $T_K$ for time-reversal symmetric setups. We show that the central role in maintaining the perfect conductance is played by a global $U(1)$ symmetry. This symmetry can be broken by an anisotropic exchange coupling of the helical modes to the local impurity. Such anisotropy, in general, dynamically vanishes during the renormalization group (RG) flow to the strong coupling limit at low-temperatures. The role of the anisotropic exchange coupling is further studied using the time-dependent Numerical Renormalization Group (TD-NRG) method, uniquely suitable for calculating out-of-equilibrium observables of strongly correlated setups. We investigate the role of finite bias voltage and temperature in cutting the RG flow before the isotropic strong-coupling fixed point is reached, extract the relevant energy scales and the manner in which the crossover from the weakly interacting regime to the strong-coupling backscattering-free screened regime is manifested. Most notably, we find that at low temperatures the conductance of the backscattering current follows a power-law behavior $Gsim (T/T_K)^2$, which we understand as a strong nonlinear effect due to time-reversal symmetry breaking by the finite-bias.

Bulk thermal transport coefficients in a quantum Hall system and the fundamental difference between thermal and charge response

We derive and calculate thermal transport coefficient for a quantum Hall system in the linear response regime, and show that they are exponentially small in the bulk, in contrast to the quantized value of the charge Hall coefficient, thus violating Wiedemann-Franz law. This corroborates earlier reports about the essential difference between the charge and thermal quantum Hall effect, that originates from the different behavior of the corresponding $U(1)$ and gravitational anomalies. We explicitly calculate the bulk currents when a temperature profile is applied within the bulk, and show that they are proportional to the second derivative of the respective gravitational potential (tidal force), and nonuniversal, in contrast to the charge current which is proportional to the first derivative of the electrochemical potential.

Approximately quantized thermal Hall effect of chiral liquids coupled to phonons

The recent observation of a half-integer quantized thermal Hall effect in $alpha$-RuCl$_3$ is interpreted as a unique signature of a chiral spin liquid with a Majorana edge mode. A similar quantized thermal Hall effect is expected in chiral topological superconductors. The unavoidable presence of gapless acoustic phonons, however, implies that, in contrast to the quantized electrical conductivity, the thermal Hall conductivity $kappa_xy$ is never exactly quantized in real materials. Here, we investigate how phonons affect the quantization of the thermal conductivity focusing on the edge theory. As an example we consider a Kitaev spin liquid gapped by an external magnetic field coupled to acoustic phonons. The coupling to phonons destroys the ballistic thermal transport of the edge mode completely, as energy can leak into the bulk, thus drastically modifying the edge-picture of the thermal Hall effect. Nevertheless, the thermal Hall conductivity remains approximately quantized and we argue, that the coupling to phonons to the edge mode is a necessary condition for the observation of the quantized thermal Hall effect. The strength of this edge coupling does, however, not affect the conductivity. We argue that for sufficiently clean systems the leading correction to the quantized thermal Hall effect, $Delta kappa_{xy}/T sim text{sign(B)} , T^2$, arises from a intrinsic anomalous Hall effect of the acoustic phonons due to Berry phases imprinted by the chiral (spin) liquid in the bulk. This correction depends on the sign but not the amplitude of the external magnetic field.

$mathbb{Z}_4$ Parafermions in an interacting quantum spin Hall Josephson junction coupled to an impurity spin

$mathbb{Z}_4$ parafermions can be realized in a strongly interacting quantum spin Hall Josephson junction or in a spin Hall Josephson junction strongly coupled to an impurity spin. In this paper we study a system that has both features, but with weak (repulsive) interactions and a weakly coupled spin. We show that for a strongly anisotropic exchange interaction, at low temperatures the system enters a strong coupling limit in which it hosts two $mathbb{Z}_4$ parafermions, characterizing a fourfold degeneracy of the ground state. We construct the parafermion operators explicitly, and show that they facilitate fractional $e/2$ charge tunneling across the junction. The dependence of the effective low-energy spectrum on the superconducting phase difference reveals an $8pi$ periodicity of the supercurrent.

Parity anomaly and spin transmutation in quantum spin Hall Josephson junctions

We study the Josephson effect in a quantum spin Hall system coupled to a localized magnetic impurity. As a consequence of the fermion parity anomaly, the spin of the combined system of impurity and spin-Hall edge alternates between half-integer and integer values when the superconducting phase difference across the junction advances by $2pi$. This leads to characteristic differences in the splittings of the spin multiplets by exchange coupling and single-ion anisotropy at phase differences, for which time-reserval symmetry is preserved. We discuss the resulting $8pi$-periodic (or $mathbb{Z}_4$) fractional Josephson effect in the context of recent experiments.

From thermal equilibrium to nonequilibrium quench dynamics: A conserving approximation for the interacting resonant level

We develop a low-order conserving approximation for the interacting resonant-level model (IRLM), and apply it to (i) thermal equilibrium, (ii) nonequilibrium steady state, and (iii) nonequilibrium quench dynamics. Thermal equilibrium is first used to carefully gauge the quality of the approximation by comparing the results with other well-studied methods, and finding good agreement for small values of the interaction. We analytically show that the power-law exponent of the renormalized level width usually derived using renormalization group approaches can also be correctly obtained in our approach in the weak interaction limit. A closed expression for the nonequilibrium steady-state current is derived and analytically and numerically evaluated. We find a negative differential conductance at large voltages, and the exponent of the power-law suppression of the steady-state current is calculated analytically at zero-temperature. The response of the system to quenches is investigated for a single-lead as well as for two-lead setup at finite voltage bias at particle-hole symmetry using a self-consistent two-times Keldysh Green function approach, and results are presented for the time-dependent current for different bias and contact interaction strength.

Single-molecule-mediated heat current between an electronic and a bosonic bath

In molecular devices electronic degrees of freedom are coupled to vibrational modes of the molecule, offering an opportunity to study fundamental aspects of this coupling between at the nanoscale. To this end we consider the nonequilibrium heat exchange between a conduction band and a bosonic bath mediated by a single molecule. For molecules large enough so that on-site interactions can be dropped we carry out an asymptotically exact calculation of the heat current, governed by the smallness of the electron-phonon coupling, and obtain the steady state heat current driven by a finite temperature drop. At low temperatures the heat current is found to have a power-law behavior with respect to the temperature difference with the power depending on the nature of the bosonic bath. At high temperatures, on the other hand, the current is linear in the temperature difference for all types of bosonic baths. The crossover between these behaviors is described. Some of the results are given a physical explanation by comparing to a perturbative Master equation calculation (whose limitation we examine).