Composite helical edges from Abelian fractional topological insulators

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Autori principali: Chou, Yang-Zhi, Sarma, Sankar Das
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Chou, Yang-Zhi
Sarma, Sankar Das
author_facet Chou, Yang-Zhi
Sarma, Sankar Das
contents We study an interacting composite $(1+1/n)$ Abelian helical edge state made of a regular helical liquid carrying charge $e$ and a (fractionalized) helical liquid carrying charge $e/n$. A systematic framework is developed for these composite $(1+1/n)$ Abelian helical edge states with $n=1,2,3$. For $n=2$, the composite edge state consists of a regular helical Luttinger liquid and a fractional topological insulator (the Abelian $Z_4$ topological order) edge state arising from half-filled conjugated Chern bands. The composite edge state with $n=2$ is pertinent to the recent twisted MoTe$_2$ experiment, suggesting a possible fractional topological insulator with conductance $\frac{3}{2}\frac{e^2}{h}$ per edge. Using bosonization, we construct generic phase diagrams in the presence of $weak$ Rashba spin-orbit coupling. In addition to a phase of free bosons, we find a time-reversal symmetry-breaking localized insulator, two perfect positive drag phases, a perfect negative drag phase (for $n=2,3$), a time-reversal symmetric Anderson localization (only for $n=1$), and a disorder-dominated metallic phase analogous to the $ν=2/3$ disordered fractional quantum Hall edges (only for $n=3$). We further compute the two-terminal edge-state conductance, the primary experimental characterization for the (fractional) topological insulator. Remarkably, the negative drag phase gives rise to an unusual edge-state conductance, $(1-1/n)\frac{e^2}{h}$, not directly associated with the filling factor. We further investigate the effect of an applied in-plane magnetic field. For $n>1$, the applied magnetic field can result in a phase with edge-state conductance $\frac{1}{n}\frac{e^2}{h}$, providing another testable signature. Our work establishes a systematic understanding of the composite $(1+1/n)$ Abelian helical edge, paving the way for future experimental and theoretical studies.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2406_06669
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Composite helical edges from Abelian fractional topological insulators
Chou, Yang-Zhi
Sarma, Sankar Das
Strongly Correlated Electrons
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
We study an interacting composite $(1+1/n)$ Abelian helical edge state made of a regular helical liquid carrying charge $e$ and a (fractionalized) helical liquid carrying charge $e/n$. A systematic framework is developed for these composite $(1+1/n)$ Abelian helical edge states with $n=1,2,3$. For $n=2$, the composite edge state consists of a regular helical Luttinger liquid and a fractional topological insulator (the Abelian $Z_4$ topological order) edge state arising from half-filled conjugated Chern bands. The composite edge state with $n=2$ is pertinent to the recent twisted MoTe$_2$ experiment, suggesting a possible fractional topological insulator with conductance $\frac{3}{2}\frac{e^2}{h}$ per edge. Using bosonization, we construct generic phase diagrams in the presence of $weak$ Rashba spin-orbit coupling. In addition to a phase of free bosons, we find a time-reversal symmetry-breaking localized insulator, two perfect positive drag phases, a perfect negative drag phase (for $n=2,3$), a time-reversal symmetric Anderson localization (only for $n=1$), and a disorder-dominated metallic phase analogous to the $ν=2/3$ disordered fractional quantum Hall edges (only for $n=3$). We further compute the two-terminal edge-state conductance, the primary experimental characterization for the (fractional) topological insulator. Remarkably, the negative drag phase gives rise to an unusual edge-state conductance, $(1-1/n)\frac{e^2}{h}$, not directly associated with the filling factor. We further investigate the effect of an applied in-plane magnetic field. For $n>1$, the applied magnetic field can result in a phase with edge-state conductance $\frac{1}{n}\frac{e^2}{h}$, providing another testable signature. Our work establishes a systematic understanding of the composite $(1+1/n)$ Abelian helical edge, paving the way for future experimental and theoretical studies.
title Composite helical edges from Abelian fractional topological insulators
topic Strongly Correlated Electrons
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.06669