Topological Kondo Insulator from Spin Loop Currents

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Gleis, Andreas, Lucht, Kevin, Chen, Po-Jui, Guerci, Daniele, Millis, Andrew J, Pixley, J. H.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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_version_ 1866913026271084544
author Gleis, Andreas
Lucht, Kevin
Chen, Po-Jui
Guerci, Daniele
Millis, Andrew J
Pixley, J. H.
author_facet Gleis, Andreas
Lucht, Kevin
Chen, Po-Jui
Guerci, Daniele
Millis, Andrew J
Pixley, J. H.
contents We demonstrate that interacting electrons in AB-stacked $\mathrm{MoTe}_2/\mathrm{WSe}_2$ realize a topological Kondo insulator at hole filling $ν=2$ per moiré unit cell. In the presence of only local correlations, a symmetry of the moiré-scale bandstructure enforces a compensated topological semimetal by tying band inversion to band overlap. We show that non-local interactions change the physics qualitatively, since they allow intrinsic, quantum-geometry-induced spin loop currents to feed back on the effective bandstructure, which lift the remaining accidental degeneracies and open a full gap in the spectrum, leading to a fully gapped topological Kondo insulator. We establish this using real-frequency dynamical mean-field theory to capture Kondo physics alongside Hartree-Fock for non-local interactions. The topological Kondo insulator emerges at intermediate displacement fields, where strong correlations manifest through an enhanced spin susceptibility, a suppressed charge susceptibility, and a stronger thermal dependence of the resistivity. Our results are in good agreement with recent experiments on $\mathrm{MoTe}_2/\mathrm{WSe}_2$ bilayers demonstrating topological to trivial phase transitions controlled by the displacement field.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_11739
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Topological Kondo Insulator from Spin Loop Currents
Gleis, Andreas
Lucht, Kevin
Chen, Po-Jui
Guerci, Daniele
Millis, Andrew J
Pixley, J. H.
Strongly Correlated Electrons
We demonstrate that interacting electrons in AB-stacked $\mathrm{MoTe}_2/\mathrm{WSe}_2$ realize a topological Kondo insulator at hole filling $ν=2$ per moiré unit cell. In the presence of only local correlations, a symmetry of the moiré-scale bandstructure enforces a compensated topological semimetal by tying band inversion to band overlap. We show that non-local interactions change the physics qualitatively, since they allow intrinsic, quantum-geometry-induced spin loop currents to feed back on the effective bandstructure, which lift the remaining accidental degeneracies and open a full gap in the spectrum, leading to a fully gapped topological Kondo insulator. We establish this using real-frequency dynamical mean-field theory to capture Kondo physics alongside Hartree-Fock for non-local interactions. The topological Kondo insulator emerges at intermediate displacement fields, where strong correlations manifest through an enhanced spin susceptibility, a suppressed charge susceptibility, and a stronger thermal dependence of the resistivity. Our results are in good agreement with recent experiments on $\mathrm{MoTe}_2/\mathrm{WSe}_2$ bilayers demonstrating topological to trivial phase transitions controlled by the displacement field.
title Topological Kondo Insulator from Spin Loop Currents
topic Strongly Correlated Electrons
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.11739