Topological insulators and topological nonlinearσmodels

Topological insulators

Topological Insulators and Superconductors

We study theoretical properties of robust low energy electronic excitations associated with topological insulators and superconductors. The bulk materials are described by non-interacting single particle band Hamiltonians with a finite excitation gap. Their topological phases are classifed according to symmetries and dimensions, characterized by discrete bulk invariants, and correspond to topol...

Topological order parameters for interacting topological insulators.

We propose a topological order parameter for interacting topological insulators, expressed in terms of the full Green's functions of the interacting system. We show that it is exactly quantized for a time-reversal invariant topological insulator, and it can be experimentally measured through the topological magneto-electric effect. This topological order parameter can be applied to both interac...

Modulated Floquet topological insulators.

The application of spatially uniform light on conventional insulators can induce Floquet spectra with characteristics akin to those of topological insulators. We demonstrate that spatial modulation of light allows for remarkable control of the properties in these systems. We provide configurations to generate one-dimensional bulk modes, photoinduced currents, as well as fractionalized excitatio...

Topological crystalline insulators.

The recent discovery of topological insulators has revived interest in the band topology of insulators. In this Letter, we extend the topological classification of band structures to include certain crystal point group symmetry. We find a class of three-dimensional "topological crystalline insulators" which have metallic surface states with quadratic band degeneracy on high symmetry crystal sur...