The chiral charge density wave transition in 1T-TiSe2

Abstract

It was recently suggested that the formation of charge density wave order in 1T-TiSe2 is accompanied by the emergence of orbital order, which renders the combined state chiral. Here, we analyse the transition between the chiral and non-chiral phases of TiSe2 in terms of a Ginzburg-Landau description. We find that the phase transition is expected to be of second order, and that the consequences of the formation of chiral charge order should be observable in a variety of experimental settings.