Band Touching Points Research Articles

Weyl superconductivity and quasiperiodic Majorana arcs in quasicrystals

Weyl superconductivity is a topological phase in three-dimensional crystals in which the Weyl equation describes quasiparticle excitation near band-touching points in momentum space called Weyl nodes. For quasicrystals which lack translational symmetry, a theory of Weyl superconductivity has not been established, in spite of recent extensive studies on quasicrystalline topological phases. Here, we demonstrate the occurrence of quasicrystalline Weyl superconductivity by extending the definition of Weyl superconductivity to periodically stacked, two-dimensional superconducting quasicrystals. We identify quasicrystalline Weyl nodes—topologically protected point nodes in one-dimensional momentum space corresponding to the stacking direction—in terms of a topological invariant given by a change in the Bott index in quasicrystalline layers. We find that these Weyl nodes exist in pairs and that Majorana zero-energy modes protected by the nonzero Bott index between a pair of quasicrystalline Weyl nodes appear on surfaces. These Majorana zero modes form an infinite number of arcs in momentum space, densely and quasiperiodically distributed as a function of momentum in the direction of surfaces within each quasicrystalline layer. In Ammann-Beenker (Penrose) quasicrystals, the quasiperiodicity of Majorana arcs is governed by the silver (golden) ratio associated with the quasicrystalline structure. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Superfluid stiffness and Josephson quantum capacitance: Adiabatic approach and topological effects

We bring forward a unified framework for the study of the superfluid stiffness and the quantum capacitance of superconducting platforms exhibiting conventional spin-singlet pairing. We focus on systems which in their normal phase contain topological band touching points or crossings, while in their superconducting regime feature a fully gapped energy spectrum. Our unified description relies on viewing these two types of physical quantities as the charge current and density response coefficients obtained for slow spatiotemporal variations of the superconducting phase. Within our adiabatic formalism, the two coefficients are given in terms of Berry curvatures defined in synthetic spaces. Our paper lays the foundation for the systematic description of topological diagonal superfluid responses induced by singularities dictating the synthetic Berry curvatures. We exemplify our approach for concrete one- and two-dimensional models of superconducting topological (semi)metals. We discuss topological phenomena which arise in the superfluid stiffness of bulk systems and the quantum capacitance of Josephson junctions. We show that both coefficients become proportional to a topological invariant which counts the number of topological touchings or crossings of the normal phase band structure. These topological effects can be equivalently viewed as manifestations of chiral anomaly. Our predictions appear experimentally testable in topological semimetals with proximity-induced pairing, such as in graphene-superconductor hybrids at charge neutrality. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Emergent macroscopic electromagnetism in the 3-dimensional non-Hermitian double-cover Lieb model

In this paper, we investigate the behaviors of the 3-dimensional non-Hermitian double-cover Lieb model near the band-touching points. The double-cover Lieb model is composed of two copies of Lieb configurations. Our analysis demonstrates that, near the band-touching points, the double-cover Lieb model emerges macroscopic electromagnetism, which incorporates permittivity and permeability that serve as primary causes for numerous electromagnetic phenomena. By analyzing the polarized phases of flavor and spin spaces in the double-cover Lieb model, we classify different topological phases of the model corresponding to different material phases induced by permittivity and permeability. We also discuss possible experimental schemes for realizing the 3-dimensional non-Hermitian double-cover Lieb model. The double-cover Lieb models model bears similarity to low-energy quantum chromodynamics models, extension of the non-Hermitian double-cover Lieb model could enable the exploration of even richer phase phenomena.

General construction scheme for geometrically nontrivial flat band models

A singular flat band (SFB), a distinct class of the flat band, has been shown to exhibit various intriguing material properties characterized by the quantum distance. We present a general construction scheme for a tight-binding model hosting an SFB, where the quantum distance profile can be controlled. We first introduce how to build a compact localized state (CLS), endowing the flat band with a band-touching point and a specific value of the maximum quantum distance. Then, we develop a scheme designing a tight-binding Hamiltonian hosting an SFB starting from the obtained CLS, with the desired hopping range and symmetries. We propose several simple SFB models on the square and kagome lattices. Finally, we establish a bulk-boundary correspondence between the maximum quantum distance and the boundary modes for the open boundary condition, which can be used to detect the quantum distance via the electronic structure of the boundary states.

Extrinsic and intrinsic nonlinear Hall effects across Berry-dipole transitions

Three-dimensional Hopf insulators are a class of topological phases beyond the tenfold-way classification. At the critical point of the transition between two distinct Hopf insulators with rotational symmetry, the band-touching points are point Berry dipoles with two opposite Berry charges overlapping in a mirror-symmetric way, and carry unique Berry curvature structures leading to a special quantization of Berry flux. Close to such Berry-dipole transitions, we find that the extrinsic and intrinsic nonlinear Hall conductivity tensors in the weakly doped regime are characterized by two universal functions of the ratio between doping level and bulk energy gap, and are directly proportional to the change in Hopf invariant across the transition. Our work suggests that the nonlinear Hall effects display a generalized-sense quantized behavior across Berry-dipole transitions, establishing a correspondence between nonlinear Hall effects and Hopf invariants.

Singular flat bands in the modified Haldane-Dice model

Flat bands can be divided into singular and non-singular ones according to the behavior of their Bloch wave function around band-crossing points in momentum space. We analyze the flat band in the Dice model, which can be tuned by a uniaxial strain in the zigzag direction and a Haldane-type next-nearest neighbor interaction, and derive the topological phase diagram of the modified Haldane-Dice model to obtain all band-gap closings with the central band. When the central band is flat, we determine its compact localized state and classify its behavior at all band-touching points by means of the Hilbert–Schmidt quantum distance. We find that the flat band remains singular for all band-touching points (topological phase transitions) with a maximal quantum distance and give expressions for the resulting non-contractible loop states on the real-space torus.

U(1)-symmetric Gaussian fermionic projected entangled paired states and their Gutzwiller projection

We develop a formalism for constructing particle-number-conserving Gaussian fermionic projected entangled pair states [U(1)-GfPEPS] and show that these states can describe ground states of band insulators and gapless fermions with band touching points. When using them as variational Ans\"{a}tze for two Dirac fermion systems ($\pi$-flux model on the square lattice and $[0,\pi]$-flux model on the kagome lattice), we find that the U(1)-GfPEPS, even with a relatively small bond dimension, can accurately approximate the Dirac Fermi sea ground states. By applying Gutzwiller projectors on top of these U(1)-GfPEPS, we obtain PEPS representation of U(1)-Dirac spin liquid states for spin-1/2 systems. With state-of-the-art tensor network numerics, the critical exponent in the spin-spin correlation function of the Gutzwiller-projected $\pi$-flux state is estimated to be $\eta \approx 1.7$.

Orbital-active Dirac materials from the symmetry principle

Dirac materials, starting with graphene, have drawn tremendous research interest in the past decade. Instead of focusing on the p_{z} orbital as in graphene, we move a step further and study orbital-active Dirac materials, where the orbital degrees of freedom transform as a two-dimensional irreducible representation of the lattice point group. Examples of orbital-active Dirac materials occur in a broad class of systems, including transition-metal-oxide heterostructures, transition-metal dichalcogenide monolayers, germanene, stanene, and optical lattices. Different systems are unified based on symmetry principles. The band structure of orbital-active Dirac materials features Dirac cones at K(K') and quadratic band touching points at Γ, regardless of the origin of the orbital degrees of freedom. In the strong anisotropy limit, i.e., when the π-bonding can be neglected, flat bands appear due to the destructive interference. These features make orbital-active Dirac materials an even wider playground for searching for exotic states of matter, such as the Dirac semi-metal, ferromagnetism, Wigner crystallization, quantum spin Hall state, and quantum anomalous Hall state.

Fermiology of Topological Metals

The modern scope of fermiology encompasses not just the classical geometry of Fermi surfaces but also the geometry of quantum wave functions over the Fermi surface. This enlarged scope is motivated by the advent of topological metals—metals whose Fermi surfaces are characterized by a robustly nontrivial Berry phase. We review the extent to which topological metals can be diagnosed from magnetic-field-induced quantum oscillations of transport and thermodynamic quantities. A holistic analysis of the oscillatory wave form is proposed, in which different characteristics of the wave form (e.g., phase offset, high-harmonic amplitudes, temperature-dependent frequency) encode different aspects of a topologically nontrivial Fermi surface. Which characteristic to focus on depends on ( a) the orientation of the magnetic field relative to certain crystallographic axes, ( b) the symmetry class of the topological metal, and ( c) the separation of Fermi-surface pockets in quasimomentum [Formula: see text] space. Closely proximate pockets arise when (1) spin–split pockets are nearly overlapping due to a weak spin–orbit force or when (2) two pockets touch at an isolated [Formula: see text] point, which can be a topological band-touching point or a saddlepoint in the energy-momentum dispersion. The emergence of a pseudospin degree of freedom (in case 1) and the implications of magnetic breakdown (in case 2) are reviewed, with emphasis on new aspects originating from the (nonabelian) Berry connection of the Fermi surface. Future extensions of topofermiology are suggested in the directions of interaction-induced Fermi-liquid instabilities and two-dimensional electron liquids.

PY-Nodes: An ab-initio python code for searching nodes in a material using Nelder-Mead's simplex approach

With the discovery of topological semimetals, it has been found that the band touching points near the Fermi level are of great importance. They give rise to many exciting phenomena in these materials. Moreover, these points, commonly known as nodes, are related to several properties of these semimetals. Thus, the proper estimation of their coordinates is extremely needed for better understanding of the properties of these materials. We have designed a Python 3 based code named PY-Nodes for efficiently finding the nodes present in a given material using first-principle approach. The present version of the code is interfaced with the WIEN2k package. For benchmarking the code, it has been tested on some famous materials that possess characteristic nodes. These include – TaAs, a well-known Weyl semimetal, Na3Bi, which is categorized as Dirac semimetal, CaAgAs, classified as a nodal-line semimetal and YAuPb, which is claimed to be non-trivial topological semimetal. In the case of TaAs, 24 nodes are obtained from our calculations. On computing their chiralities, it is found that 12 pairs of nodes having equal and opposite chirality are obtained. Furthermore, for Na3Bi, a pair of nodes are obtained on either side of the Γ-point in the k3 direction. In the case of CaAgAs, several nodes are obtained in the kz=0 plane. These nodes, when plotted in the kx-ky plane, form a closed loop which is generally referred to as a nodal-line. Finally, in the case of YAuPb, large number of nodes are obtained in the vicinity of Γ-point. The results obtained for these materials are in good match with the previous works carried out by different research groups. This assures the reliability and efficiency of the PY-Nodes code for estimating the nodes present in a given material. Program summaryProgram Title: PY-NodesCPC Library link to program files:https://doi.org/10.17632/m97syc9rth.1Licensing provisions: GNU General Public License 3.0Programming language: Python 3External routines/libraries: Math, TimeNature of problem: Searching for the node points corresponding to any given number of bands present in the first Brillouin zone of any material.Solution method: Nelder-Mead's simplex approach is a well-known function-minimization method. This approach is used to minimize the function f(k), which is defined as sum of the absolute energy difference of the adjacent pairs of bands at a given k-point. The local minima will correspond to the node points present in the material.

Interaction-driven quantum anomalous Hall insulator in a Dirac semimetal

The interaction-driven quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) insulator has been sought for a long time in a Dirac semimetal with linear band touching points at the Fermi level. By combining exact diagonalization, density matrix renormalization group, and analytical methods, we study a spinless fermion system on the checkerboard lattice with two fold rotational symmetry, which realizes two Dirac band touching points in the absence of interaction. At weak coupling, the Dirac semimetal is stable. At a finite density-density repulsive interaction, we analyze possible symmetry broken states, and find that an QAH state is stabilized when the interaction strength exceeds the energy scale controlling the separation between the Dirac points. Through numerical simulations, we verify the existence of the QAH phase with spontaneous time-reversal symmetry breaking and quantized Chern number $C = 1$.

Topological invariants of Floquet topological phases under periodical driving

Owing to the replication of Floquet bands and the presence of additional gaps in the quasienergy dimension, the topological phases in a periodically driven system cannot be fully characterized by the conventional topological invariants used in static systems. In particular, an anomalous strong topological phase can be a host in driven systems, featured by nontrivial counterpropagating edge modes which cannot be characterized by the bulk band structure. In this paper, we propose a scheme to obtain a complete characterization of Floquet topological phases using only information about bulk dispersions under the condition that both the location and chirality of Floquet band-touching points are not changed by the periodical driving. A set of topological invariants associated with the band-touching points are formulated to establish a one-to-one correspondence to the number of edge modes. Finally, we discuss the experimental realization and detection scheme using cold atomic gases.

Optical Conductivity as a Probe of the Interaction-Driven Metal in Rhombohedral Trilayer Graphene

Study of the strongly correlated states in van der Waals heterostructures is one of the central topics in modern condensed matter physics. Among these, the rhombohedral trilayer graphene (RTG) occupies a prominent place since it hosts a variety of interaction-driven phases, with the metallic ones yielding exotic superconducting orders upon doping. Motivated by these experimental findings, we show within the framework of the low-energy Dirac theory that the optical conductivity can distinguish different candidates for a paramagnetic metallic ground state in this system. In particular, this observable shows a single peak in the fully gapped valence-bond state. On the other hand, the bond-current state features two pronounced peaks in the optical conductivity as the probing frequency increases. Finally, the rotational symmetry breaking charge-density wave exhibits a minimal conductivity with the value independent of the amplitude of the order parameter, which corresponds precisely to the splitting of the two cubic nodal points at the two valleys into two triplets of the band touching points featuring linearly dispersing quasiparticles. These features represent the smoking gun signatures of different candidate order parameters for the paramagnetic metallic ground state, which should motivate further experimental studies of the RTG.

Direct geometric probe of singularities in band structure.

A quantum system's energy landscape may have points where multiple energy surfaces are degenerate and that exhibit singular geometry of the wave function manifold, with major consequences for the system's properties. Ultracold atoms in optical lattices have been used to indirectly characterize such points in the band structure. We measured the non-Abelian transformation produced by transport directly through the singularities. We accelerated atoms along a quasi-momentum trajectory that enters, turns, and then exits the singularities at linear and quadratic band-touching points of a honeycomb lattice. Measurements after transport identified the topological winding numbers of these singularities to be 1 and 2, respectively. Our work introduces a distinct method for probing singularities that enables the study of non-Dirac singularities in ultracold-atom quantum simulators.

Quantum cascade of correlated phases in trigonally warped bilayer graphene.

Divergent density of states offersan opportunity to explore a wide variety of correlated electron physics. In the thinnest limit, this has been predicted and verified in the ultraflat bands of magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene1-5, the band touching points of few-layer rhombohedral graphite6-8 and the lightly doped rhombohedral trilayer graphene9-11. The simpler and seemingly better understood Bernal bilayer graphene is also susceptible to orbital magnetism at charge neutrality7 leading to layer antiferromagnetic states12 or quantum anomalous Hallstates13. Here we report the observation of a cascade of correlated phases in the vicinity of electric-field-controlled Lifshitz transitions14,15 and van Hove singularities16 in Bernal bilayer graphene. We provide evidence for the observation of Stoner ferromagnets in the form of half and quarter metals10,11. Furthermore, we identify signatures consistent with a topologically non-trivial Wigner-Hall crystal17 at zero magnetic field and its transition to a trivial Wigner crystal, as well as two correlated metals whose behaviour deviates from that of standard Fermi liquids. Our results in this reproducible, tunable, simple systemopen up new horizons for studying strongly correlated electrons.

Nonadiabatic transition at a band-touching point

Low-energy Hamiltonians with a linear crossing in their energy dispersion (dubbed Dirac Hamiltonians) have recently been the subject of intense investigations. The linear dispersion is often the result of an approximation in the energy dispersion at the band-touching point in which higher order terms are discarded. In this paper, we show that, in terms of nonadiabatic transitions, by passing through a touching point, certain types of quadratic terms could not be omitted, even in the arbitrary vicinity of it, ie, quadratic terms could significantly affect the transition probability, hence the Hamiltonian is not reducible to a linear one. We further show that the presence of terms with exponents larger than two only affects the transition probability away from the touching point. In the end, we discuss conditions that may lead to the appearance of oscillations in the transition probability profile.

General construction and topological classification of crystalline flat bands

Exotic phases of matter emerge from the interplay between strong electron interactions and non-trivial topology. Owing to their lack of dispersion at the single-particle level, systems harboring flat bands are excellent testbeds for strongly interacting physics, with twisted bilayer graphene serving as a prime example. On the other hand, existing theoretical models for obtaining flat bands in crystalline materials, such as the line-graph formalism, are often too restrictive for real-life material realizations. Here we present a generic technique for constructing perfectly flat bands from bipartite crystalline lattices. Our prescription encapsulates and generalizes the various flat band models in the literature, being applicable to systems with any orbital content, with or without spin-orbit coupling. Using Topological Quantum Chemistry, we build a complete topological classification in terms of symmetry eigenvalues of all the gapped and gapless flat bands, for all 1651 Magnetic Space Groups. In addition, we derive criteria for the existence of symmetry-protected band touching points between the flat and dispersive bands, and we identify the gapped flat bands as prime candidates for fragile topological phases. Finally, we show that the set of all (gapped and gapless) perfectly flat bands is finitely generated and construct the corresponding bases for all 1651 Shubnikov Space Groups.

Designing flat-band tight-binding models with tunable multifold band touching points

Being dispersionless, flat bands on periodic lattices are solely characterized by their macroscopically degenerate eigenstates: compact localized states (CLSs) in real space and Bloch states in reciprocal space. Based on this property, this work presents a straightforward method to build flat-band tight-binding models with short-range hoppings \emph{on any periodic lattice}. The method consists in starting from a CLS and engineering families of Bloch Hamiltonians as quadratic (or linear) functions of the associated Bloch state. The resulting tight-binding models not only exhibit a flat band, but also multifold quadratic (or linear) band touching points (BTPs) whose number, location, and degeneracy can be controlled to a large extent. Quadratic flat-band models are ubiquitous: they can be built from any arbitrary CLS, on any lattice, in any dimension and with any number $N\geq2$ of bands. Linear flat-band models are rarer: they require $N\geq3$ and can only be built from CLSs that fulfill certain compatibility relations with the underlying lattice. Most flat-band models from the literature can be classified according to this scheme: Mielke's and Tasaki's models belong to the quadratic class, while the Lieb, dice and breathing Kagome models belong to the linear class. Many novel flat-band models are introduced, among which an $N=4$ bilayer honeycomb model with fourfold quadratic BTPs, an $N=5$ dice model with fivefold linear BTPs, and an $N=3$ Kagome model with BTPs that can be smoothly tuned from linear to quadratic.

Berry curvature induced magnetotransport in 3D noncentrosymmetric metals

We study the magnetoelectric and magnetothermal transport properties of noncentrosymmetric metals using semiclassical Boltzmann transport formalism by incorporating the effects of Berry curvature (BC) and orbital magnetic moment (OMM). These effects impart quadratic-B dependence to the magnetoelectric and magnetothermal conductivities, leading to intriguing phenomena such as planar Hall effect, negative magnetoresistance (MR), planar Nernst effect and negative Seebeck effect. The transport coefficients associated with these effects show the usual oscillatory behavior with respect to the angle between the applied electric field and magnetic field. The bands of noncentrosymmetric metals are split by Rashba spin–orbit coupling except at a band touching point (BTP). For Fermi energy below (above) the BTP, giant (diminished) negative MR is observed. This difference in the nature of MR is related to the magnitudes of the velocities, BC and OMM on the respective Fermi surfaces, where the OMM plays the dominant role. The absolute MR and planar Hall conductivity show a decreasing (increasing) trend with Rashba coupling parameter for Fermi energy below (above) the BTP.

Nonequilibrium hybrid multi-Weyl semimetal phases

Multi-Weyl semimetals are variations of Weyl semimetals characterized by isolated band touching points, each carrying multiple topological charges. Given a plethora of exotic transport properties arising in such systems, it remains a longstanding interest to explore other variations of these semimetal phases. Of particular significance are hybrid multi-Weyl semimetal phases where various isolated band touching points, the number of which can be increased on-demand by tuning system parameters, carrying different topological charges coexist in the same setting. The experimental realization of such systems is expected to allow, in principle, clearer and more distinguishable signatures of isolated band touching points with various topological charges. In this work, we attempt to theoretically devise such systems by means of Floquet engineering. Specifically, we present three separate periodically driven systems displaying single-Weyl, double-single-Weyl, and triple-single-Weyl semimetal phases, each of which is capable of hosting a large number of isolated band touching points. We further report their intricate Fermi arc structures that result from the interplay between isolated band touching points of different charges. Moreover, we characterize these multi-Weyl nodes by use of a dynamical winding invariant.