Altermagnetism-Induced Parity Anomaly in Weak Topological Insulators

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Autori principali: Wan, Yu-Hao, Sun, Qing-Feng
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Wan, Yu-Hao
Sun, Qing-Feng
author_facet Wan, Yu-Hao
Sun, Qing-Feng
contents We demonstrate that introducing altermagnetism on the surface of a weak topological insulator (TI) results in the emergence of a single massless Dirac fermion, exhibiting a parity anomaly. To explore the transport properties induced by this parity anomaly, we propose an effective two-dimensional (2D) lattice model to describe the weak TI surface. This model captures both the energy spectrum and spin texture of the weak TI surface while reducing computational complexity. We show that the weak TI surface hosts a half-integer chiral edge current under the influence of altermagnetism. Additionally, in the presence of decoherence, the Hall conductance attains a half-quantized value. Layer-resolved calculations from a 3D slab model further confirm that surface altermagnetism drives the surface Hall conductance to transition to $e^{2}/2h$, aligning with calculation from the 2D effective lattice model. Our findings establish a link between altermagnetism and quantum anomalies, positioning weak TIs as a potential platform for investigating the parity anomaly without a net magnetic moment.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_03963
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Altermagnetism-Induced Parity Anomaly in Weak Topological Insulators
Wan, Yu-Hao
Sun, Qing-Feng
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
We demonstrate that introducing altermagnetism on the surface of a weak topological insulator (TI) results in the emergence of a single massless Dirac fermion, exhibiting a parity anomaly. To explore the transport properties induced by this parity anomaly, we propose an effective two-dimensional (2D) lattice model to describe the weak TI surface. This model captures both the energy spectrum and spin texture of the weak TI surface while reducing computational complexity. We show that the weak TI surface hosts a half-integer chiral edge current under the influence of altermagnetism. Additionally, in the presence of decoherence, the Hall conductance attains a half-quantized value. Layer-resolved calculations from a 3D slab model further confirm that surface altermagnetism drives the surface Hall conductance to transition to $e^{2}/2h$, aligning with calculation from the 2D effective lattice model. Our findings establish a link between altermagnetism and quantum anomalies, positioning weak TIs as a potential platform for investigating the parity anomaly without a net magnetic moment.
title Altermagnetism-Induced Parity Anomaly in Weak Topological Insulators
topic Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.03963