Topological insulators. Dirac equation in condensed matter (Q2013646)

The book presents a large family of topological insulators and superconductors based on the solutions of the Dirac equation. In the author's opinion, the Dirac equation could thread all relevant topological phases from 1D to 3D and from insulators to superconductors. The book is divided into thirteen chapters and three appendices. The introductory Chapter 1 briefly presents the historical development of the topological insulators and provides known family of phases, including all-possible Hall effects. Chapter 2 considers the Dirac equation and introduces a quadratic correction to the equation, which makes it topologically distinct. The solution of the bound states near the boundary reflects the topology of the band structure of a system and the modified Dirac equation can describe a large class of topological insulators from 1D to higher dimensions. Chapter 3 discusses if a lattice model can be mapped into a continuous model near the critical point of a topological quantum phase transition. A minimal lattice model is established for topological insulators in 1D, 2D and 3D based on the parity of the eigenstates at the time-reversal invariant momenta. Chapter 4 is devoted to two classes of topological invariants for topological phases of matter: (i) the class characterized by the elements of the group \(\mathbb{Z}\), which includes integers, and (ii) the class with elements of the group \(\mathbb{Z}^2\), including \(0\) and \(1\) or \(1\) and \(-1\), depending on the convention. In a topological insulator with time-reversal symmetry, 0 and 1 represent the presence of odd and even numbers of the surface states in 3D or even and odd numbered pairs of helical edge states in 2D, respectively. Chapter 5 presents the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model for polyacetylene, showing that it is a 1D topological insulator with the end states. The domain wall of two phases of the polyacetylene constitutes the topological excitations or charge and spin carriers in the system. Moreover, the Dirac equation in various forms could be applied to the description of other topological phases in a dimerized lattice model, a ferromagnet with spin-orbit coupling and superconductors. Chapter 6 presents different models for the study of a quantum anomalous Hall effect, leading to quantized Hall conductance even in the absence of an external magnetic field. Moreover, the quantum spin Hall system is presented demonstrating a pair of helical edge states, in which an electric current can introduce a transverse spin current or spin accumulation near the system boundary. Chapter 7 discusses 3D topological insulators, characterized by surrounding surface states well described by 2D Dirac fermions. Several types of topological defects and impurities (magnetic monopoles, vortex lines, domain walls) are studied in Chapter 8. They are considered as system boundaries, and bound states can form around these impurities and defects for the same cause as the edge and surface states form. Chapter 9 discusses topological superconductors and superfluids, which have topological nontrivial bands and possess the same edge states or surface states as the topological insulators. Chapter 10 presents a Majorama fermion, appearing as an end state in a 1D topological superconductor as a bound state introduced by a half-quantized vortex in a 2D topological superconductor. Chapter 11 discusses topological Dirac and Weyl semimetal, in which the conduction and valence bands touch at a finite number of points (the Weyl nodes). The chiral anomaly of the Weyl fermions (a pure quantum mechanical phenomenon) is attributed to the exotic magneto-transport properties in Weyl and Dirac semimetals. The Anderson insulators are studied in Chapter 12. It is distinct from the conventional topological insulator and topological band insulator. They demonstrate a mobility gap instead of a band gap in the system. The robustness of the edge or surface states is protected by the mobility gap. The concluding Chapter 13 gives a topological classification of the possible insulators and superconductors with topological phases existing from 1D to 3D. In total, this second edition of the book presents a comprehensive study of topological insulators and is an interesting attempt to generalize all-possible approaches and methods, developed in this area of condensed matter physics. It can be very useful to graduate students and specialists, studying modern physical problems. For the first edition see [Topological insulators. Dirac equation in condensed matters. Berlin: Springer (2013; Zbl 1273.82078)].