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Superconductivity from the condensation of topological defects in a quantum spin-Hall insulator

The discovery of quantum spin-Hall (QSH) insulators has brought topology to the forefront of condensed matter physics. While a QSH state from spin-orbit coupling can be fully understood in terms of band theory, fascinating many-body effects are expected if it instead results from spontaneous symmetr...

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Autores principales: Liu, Yuhai, Wang, Zhenjiu, Sato, Toshihiro, Hohenadler, Martin, Wang, Chong, Guo, Wenan, Assaad, Fakher F.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6572839/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31201300
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10372-0
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author Liu, Yuhai
Wang, Zhenjiu
Sato, Toshihiro
Hohenadler, Martin
Wang, Chong
Guo, Wenan
Assaad, Fakher F.
author_facet Liu, Yuhai
Wang, Zhenjiu
Sato, Toshihiro
Hohenadler, Martin
Wang, Chong
Guo, Wenan
Assaad, Fakher F.
author_sort Liu, Yuhai
collection PubMed
description The discovery of quantum spin-Hall (QSH) insulators has brought topology to the forefront of condensed matter physics. While a QSH state from spin-orbit coupling can be fully understood in terms of band theory, fascinating many-body effects are expected if it instead results from spontaneous symmetry breaking. Here, we introduce a model of interacting Dirac fermions where a QSH state is dynamically generated. Our tuning parameter further allows us to destabilize the QSH state in favour of a superconducting state through proliferation of charge-2e topological defects. This route to superconductivity put forward by Grover and Senthil is an instance of a deconfined quantum critical point (DQCP). Our model offers the possibility to study DQCPs without a second length scale associated with the reduced symmetry between field theory and lattice realization and, by construction, is amenable to large-scale fermion quantum Monte Carlo simulations.
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spelling pubmed-65728392019-06-24 Superconductivity from the condensation of topological defects in a quantum spin-Hall insulator Liu, Yuhai Wang, Zhenjiu Sato, Toshihiro Hohenadler, Martin Wang, Chong Guo, Wenan Assaad, Fakher F. Nat Commun Article The discovery of quantum spin-Hall (QSH) insulators has brought topology to the forefront of condensed matter physics. While a QSH state from spin-orbit coupling can be fully understood in terms of band theory, fascinating many-body effects are expected if it instead results from spontaneous symmetry breaking. Here, we introduce a model of interacting Dirac fermions where a QSH state is dynamically generated. Our tuning parameter further allows us to destabilize the QSH state in favour of a superconducting state through proliferation of charge-2e topological defects. This route to superconductivity put forward by Grover and Senthil is an instance of a deconfined quantum critical point (DQCP). Our model offers the possibility to study DQCPs without a second length scale associated with the reduced symmetry between field theory and lattice realization and, by construction, is amenable to large-scale fermion quantum Monte Carlo simulations. Nature Publishing Group UK 2019-06-14 /pmc/articles/PMC6572839/ /pubmed/31201300 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10372-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2019 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Liu, Yuhai
Wang, Zhenjiu
Sato, Toshihiro
Hohenadler, Martin
Wang, Chong
Guo, Wenan
Assaad, Fakher F.
Superconductivity from the condensation of topological defects in a quantum spin-Hall insulator
title Superconductivity from the condensation of topological defects in a quantum spin-Hall insulator
title_full Superconductivity from the condensation of topological defects in a quantum spin-Hall insulator
title_fullStr Superconductivity from the condensation of topological defects in a quantum spin-Hall insulator
title_full_unstemmed Superconductivity from the condensation of topological defects in a quantum spin-Hall insulator
title_short Superconductivity from the condensation of topological defects in a quantum spin-Hall insulator
title_sort superconductivity from the condensation of topological defects in a quantum spin-hall insulator
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6572839/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31201300
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10372-0
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