Strong correlations at topological insulator surfaces and the breakdown of the bulk-boundary correspondence

The criteria for strong correlations on surfaces of three-dimensional topological insulators are discussed. Usually, the Coulomb repulsion at such surfaces is too weak for driving a phase transition to a strongly correlated regime. I discuss a mechanism and possibilities of its experimental implementation by which the strength of the Coulomb interaction can be tuned over a wide range. In the strongly interacting regime, the surface states are gapped, even though the topological classification of the bulk band structure predicts gapless surface states

Bosonic field theory of tunable edge magnetism in graphene

A bosonic field theory is derived for the tunable edge magnetism at graphene zigzag edges. The derivation starts from an effective fermionic theory for the interacting graphene edge states, derived previously from a two-dimensional interacting tight-binding model for graphene. The essential feature of this effective model, which gives rise to the weak edge magnetism, is the momentum-dependent non-local electron-electron interaction. It is shown that this momentum-dependence may be treated by an extension of the bosonization technique, and leads to interactions of the bosonic fields. These interactions are reminiscent of a \phi^4 field theory. Focussing onto the regime close to the quantum phase transition between the ferromagnetic and the paramagnetic Luttinger liquid, a semiclassical interpretation of the interacting bosonic theory is given. Furthermore, it is argued that the universal critical behavior at the quantum phase transition between the paramagnetic and the ferromagnetic Luttinger liquid is governed by a small number of terms in this theory, which are accessible by quantum Monte-Carlo methods

Quantum Nature of Edge Magnetism in Graphene

It is argued that the subtle crossover from decoherence-dominated classical magnetism to fluctuation-dominated quantum magnetism is experimentally accessible in graphene nanoribbons. We show that the width of a nanoribbon determines whether the edge magnetism is on the classical side, on the quantum side, or in between. In the classical regime, decoherence is dominant and leads to static spin polarizations at the ribbon edges, which are well described by mean-field theories. The quantum Zeno effect is identified as the basic mechanism which is responsible for the spin polarization and thereby enables the application of graphene in spintronics. On the quantum side, however, the spin polarization is destroyed by dynamical processes. The great tunability of graphene magnetism thus offers a viable route for the study of the quantum-classical crossover.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Decoherence of Majorana qubits by noisy gates

We propose and study a realistic model for the decoherence of topological qubits, based on Majorana fermions in one-dimensional topological superconductors. The source of decoherence is the fluctuating charge on a capacitively coupled gate, modeled by non-interacting electrons. In this context, we clarify the role of quantum fluctuations and thermal fluctuations and find that quantum fluctuations do not lead to decoherence, while thermal fluctuations do. We explicitly calculate decay times due to thermal noise and give conditions for the gap size in the topological superconductor and the gate temperature. Based on this result, we provide simple rules for gate geometries and materials optimized for reducing the negative effect of thermal charge fluctuations on the gate

New technique for replica symmetry breaking with application to the SK-model at and near T=0

We describe a novel method which allows the treatment of high orders of replica-symmetry-breaking (RSB) at low temperatures as well as at T=0 directly, without a need for approximations or scaling assumptions. It yields the low temperature order function q(a,T) in the full range $0\leq a <\infty$ and is complete in the sense that all observables can be calculated from it. The behavior of some observables and the finite RSB theory itself is analyzed as one approaches continuous RSB. The validity and applicability of the traditional continuous formulation is then scrutinized and a new continuous RSB formulation is proposed

Carbon nanotubes in electric and magnetic fields

We derive an effective low-energy theory for metallic (armchair and non-armchair) single-wall nanotubes in the presence of an electric field perpendicular to the nanotube axis, and in the presence of magnetic fields, taking into account spin-orbit interactions and screening effects on the basis of a microscopic tight binding model. The interplay between electric field and spin-orbit interaction allows us to tune armchair nanotubes into a helical conductor in both Dirac valleys. Metallic non-armchair nanotubes are gapped by the surface curvature, yet helical conduction modes can be restored in one of the valleys by a magnetic field along the nanotube axis. Furthermore, we discuss electric dipole spin resonance in carbon nanotubes, and find that the Rabi frequency shows a pronounced dependence on the momentum along the nanotube

Effective models for strong electronic correlations at graphene edges

We describe a method for deriving effective low-energy theories of electronic interactions at graphene edges. Our method is applicable to general edges of honeycomb lattices (zigzag, chiral, and even disordered) as long as localized low-energy states (edge states) are present. The central characteristic of the effective theories is a dramatically reduced number of degrees of freedom. As a consequence, the solution of the effective theory by exact diagonalization is feasible for reasonably large ribbon sizes. The quality of the involved approximations is critically assessed by comparing the correlation functions obtained from the effective theory with numerically exact quantum Monte-Carlo calculations. We discuss effective theories of two levels: a relatively complicated fermionic edge state theory and a further reduced Heisenberg spin model. The latter theory paves the way to an efficient description of the magnetic features in long and structurally disordered graphene edges beyond the mean-field approximation.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure

Helical modes in carbon nanotubes generated by strong electric fields

Helical modes, conducting opposite spins in opposite directions, are shown to exist in metallic armchair nanotubes in an all-electric setup. This is a consequence of the interplay between spin-orbit interaction and strong electric fields. The helical regime can also be obtained in chiral metallic nanotubes by applying an additional magnetic field. In particular, it is possible to obtain helical modes at one of the two Dirac points only, while the other one remains gapped. Starting from a tight-binding model we derive the effective low-energy Hamiltonian and the resulting spectrum

Exact diagonalization study of the tunable edge magnetism in graphene

The tunable magnetism at graphene edges with lengths of up to 48 unit cells is analyzed by an exact diagonalization technique. For this we use a generalized interacting one-dimensional model which can be tuned continuously from a limit describing graphene zigzag edge states with a ferromagnetic phase, to a limit equivalent to a Hubbard chain, which does not allow ferromagnetism. This analysis sheds light onto the question why the edge states have a ferromagnetic ground state, while a usual one-dimensional metal does not. Essentially we find that there are two important features of edge states: (a) umklapp processes are completely forbidden for edge states; this allows a spin-polarized ground state. (b) the strong momentum dependence of the effective interaction vertex for edge states gives rise to a regime of partial spin-polarization and a second order phase transition between a standard paramagnetic Luttinger liquid and ferromagnetic Luttinger liquid.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figure