Coulomb Instabilities of a Three-Dimensional Higher-Order Topological Insulator

Zhao, Peng-Lu1,2,3; Qiang, Xiao-Bin1,2,3; Lu, Hai-Zhou1,2,3; Xie, X. C.4,5,6

2021-10-18

10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.176601

PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS   影响因子和分区

0031-9007

1079-7114

Topological insulators (TIs) are an exciting discovery because of their robustness against disorder and interactions. Recently, second-order TIs have been attracting increasing attention, because they host topologically protected 1D hinge states in 3D or 0D corner states in 2D. A significantly critical issue is whether the second-order TIs also survive interactions, but it is still unexplored. We study the effects of weak Coulomb interactions on a 3D second-order TI, with the help of renormalization-group calculations. We find that the 3D second-order TIs are always unstable, suffering from two types of topological phase transitions. One is from second-order TI to TI, the other is to normal insulator. The first type is accompanied by emergent time-reversal and inversion symmetries and has a dynamical critical exponent kappa = 1. The second type does not have the emergent symmetries but has nonuniversal dynamical critical exponents kappa < 1. Our results may inspire more inspections on the stability of higher-order topological states of matter and related novel quantum criticalities.

SCI ; EI

英语

NI论文

第一 ; 通讯

National Natural Science Foundation of China[11925402,12047531] ; National Basic Research Program of China[2015CB921102] ; Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences[XDB28000000] ; Guangdong province["2020KCXTD001","2016ZT06D348"] ; Shenzhen High-level Special Fund["G02206304","G02206404"] ; Science, Technology and Innovation Commission of Shenzhen Municipality["ZDSYS20170303165926217","JCYJ20170412152620376","KYTDPT20181011104202253"]

Physics

Physics, Multidisciplinary

WOS:000708668000007

AMER PHYSICAL SOC

20214411092744

Quantum theory ; Statistical mechanics ; Topological insulators ; Topology

Combinatorial Mathematics, Includes Graph Theory, Set Theory:921.4 ; Mathematical Statistics:922.2 ; Mechanics:931.1 ; Quantum Theory; Quantum Mechanics:931.4

PHYSICS

Web of Science

1.Southern Univ Sci & Technol SUSTech, Shenzhen Inst Quantum Sci & Engn, Shenzhen 518055, Peoples R China
2.Southern Univ Sci & Technol SUSTech, Dept Phys, Shenzhen 518055, Peoples R China
3.Shenzhen Key Lab Quantum Sci & Engn, Shenzhen 518055, Peoples R China
4.Peking Univ, Int Ctr Quantum Mat, Sch Phys, Beijing 100871, Peoples R China
5.Univ Chinese Acad Sci, CAS Ctr Excellence Topol Quantum Computat, Beijing 100190, Peoples R China
6.Beijing Acad Quantum Informat Sci, West Bldg 3,10,Xibeiwang East Rd, Beijing 100193, Peoples R China

Zhao, Peng-Lu,Qiang, Xiao-Bin,Lu, Hai-Zhou,et al. Coulomb Instabilities of a Three-Dimensional Higher-Order Topological Insulator[J]. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS,2021,127(16).

Zhao, Peng-Lu,Qiang, Xiao-Bin,Lu, Hai-Zhou,&Xie, X. C..(2021).Coulomb Instabilities of a Three-Dimensional Higher-Order Topological Insulator.PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS,127(16).

Zhao, Peng-Lu,et al."Coulomb Instabilities of a Three-Dimensional Higher-Order Topological Insulator".PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 127.16(2021).