Dissipationless conductance in a topological coaxial cable
Name
PhysRevB.94.115110.pdf
Size
260.95 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
e715fa11a683abee70f2a838bd96b7b3
Author(s)
Schuster, Thomas
Iadecola, Thomas
Chamon, Claudio
Pi, So-Young
Jackiw, Roman W
Date Issued
September 2016
Journal
Physical Review B
Publisher
American Physical Society
Citation
Schuster, Thomas; Iadecola, Thomas; Chamon, Claudio et al. "Dissipationless conductance in a topological coaxial cable." Physical Review B 94, 115110 (September 2016) : 1-5 © 2016 American Physical Society
Version
Final published version
Abstract
We present a dynamical mechanism leading to dissipationless conductance, whose quantized value is controllable in a (3+1)-dimensional electronic system. The mechanism is exemplified by a theory of Weyl fermions coupled to a Higgs field, also known as an axion insulator. We show that the insertion of an axial gauge flux can induce vortex lines in the Higgs field, similar to the development of vortices in a superconductor upon the insertion of magnetic flux. We further show that the necessary axial gauge flux can be generated using Rashba spin-orbit coupling or a magnetic field. Vortex lines in the Higgs field are known to bind chiral fermionic modes, each of which serves as a one-way channel for electric charge with conductance e²/h. Combining these elements, we present a physical picture, the “topological coaxial cable,” illustrating how the value of the quantized conductance could be controlled in such an axion insulator.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.94.115110
