Single particle Green's functions and interacting topological insulators

We study topological insulators characterized by the integer topological invariant Z, in even and odd spacial dimensions. These are well understood in case when there are no interactions. We extend the earlier work on this subject to construct their topological invariants in terms of their Green's functions. In this form, they can be used even if there are interactions. Specializing to one and two spacial dimensions, we further show that if two topologically distinct topological insulators border each other, the difference of their topological invariants is equal to the difference between the number of zero energy boundary excitations and the number of zeroes of the Green's function at the boundary. In the absence of interactions Green's functions have no zeroes thus there are always edge states at the boundary, as is well known. In the presence of interactions, in principle Green's functions could have zeroes. In that case, there could be no edge states at the boundary of two topological insulators with different topological invariants. This may provide an alternative explanation to the recent results on one dimensional interacting topological insulators.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figure

Hopf Term for a Two-Dimensional Electron Gas

In this Comment on the paper by W. Apel and Yu. A. Bychkov, cond-mat/9610040 and Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 2188 (1997), we draw attention to our prior microscopic derivations of the Hopf term for various systems and to shortcomings of the Apel-Bychkov derivation. We explain how the value of the Hopt term prefactor $\Theta$ is expressed in terms of a topological invariant in the momentum space and the quantized Hall conductivity of the system. (See also related paper cond-mat/9703195)Comment: RevTeX, 1 page, no figure

Glass state of superfluid 3He-A in aerogel

Glass states formed in the superfluid $^3$He confined in aerogel are discussed. If the short range order corresponds to the A-phase state, the glass state is nonsuperfluid in the long wave length limit. The superfluidity can be restored by application of a small mass current. Transitions between the superfluid and nonsuperfluid glass states can be triggered by small magnetic field and by the change of the tipping angle of magnetization in NMR experiments.Comment: 6 pages, LaTeX file, no figures, submitted to JETP Letter

Random anisotropy disorder in superfluid 3He-A in aerogel

The anisotropic superfluid 3He-A in aerogel provides an interesting example of a system with continuous symmetry in the presence of random anisotropy disorder. Recent NMR experiments allow us to discuss two regimes of the orientational disorder, which have different NMR properties. One of them, the (s)-state, is identified as the pure Larkin-Imry-Ma state. The structure of another state, the (f)-state, is not very clear: probably it is the Larkin-Imry-Ma state contaminated by the network of the topological defects pinned by aerogel.Comment: JETP Lett. style, 6 pages, no figures, discussion extended, references added, version to be published in JETP Letter

Non-abelian statistics of half-quantum vortices in p-wave superconductors

Excitation spectrum of a half-quantum vortex in a p-wave superconductor contains a zero-energy Majorana fermion. This results in a degeneracy of the ground state of the system of several vortices. From the properties of the solutions to Bogoliubov-de-Gennes equations in the vortex core we derive the non-abelian statistics of vortices identical to that for the Moore-Read (Pfaffian) quantum Hall state.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, REVTeX, epsf. Reference adde

Merging gauge coupling constants without Grand Unification

The merging of the running couplings constants of the weak, strong, and electromagnetic fields does not require the unification of these gauge fields at high energy. It can, in fact, be the property of a general fermionic system in which gauge bosons are not fundamental.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, v3: to appear in JETP Letter

The Nambu sum rule and the relation between the masses of composite Higgs bosons

We review the known results on the bosonic spectrum in various NJL models both in the condensed matter physics and in relativistic quantum field theory including $^3$He-B, $^3$He-A, the thin films of superfluid He-3, and QCD (Hadronic phase and the Color Flavor Locking phase). Next, we calculate bosonic spectrum in the relativistic model of top quark condensation suggested in \cite{Miransky}. In all considered cases the sum rule appears that relates the masses (energy gaps) $M_{boson}$ of the bosonic excitations in each channel with the mass (energy gap) of the condensed fermion $M_f$ as $\sum M_{boson}^2 = 4 M_f^2$. Previously this relation was established by Nambu in \cite{Nambu} for $^3$He-B and for the s - wave superconductor. We generalize this relation to the wider class of models and call it the Nambu sum rule. We discuss the possibility to apply this sum rule to various models of top quark condensation. In some cases this rule allows to calculate the masses of extra Higgs bosons that are the Nambu partners of the 125 GeV Higgs.Comment: Latex, 15 page

Topological superfluid 3He-B in magnetic field and Ising variable

The topological superfluid 3He-B provides many examples of the interplay of symmetry and topology. Here we consider the effect of magnetic field on topological properties of 3He-B. Magnetic field violates the time reversal symmetry. As a result, the topological invariant supported by this symmetry ceases to exist; and thus the gapless fermions on the surface of 3He-B are not protected any more by topology: they become fully gapped. Nevertheless, if perturbation of symmetry is small, the surface fermions remain relativistic with mass proportional to symmetry violating perturbation -- magnetic field. The 3He-B symmetry gives rise to the Ising variable I=+/- 1, which emerges in magnetic field and which characterizes the states of the surface of 3He-B. This variable also determines the sign of the mass term of surface fermions and the topological invariant describing their effective Hamiltonian. The line on the surface, which separates the surface domains with different I, contains 1+1 gapless fermions, which are protected by combined action of symmetry and topology.Comment: 5 pages, JETP Letters style, no figures, version submitted to JETP Letter

Spontaneous mass current and textures of p-wave superfluids of trapped Fermionic atom gases at rest and under rotation

It is found theoretically based on the Ginzburg-Landau framework that p-wave superfluids of neutral atom gases in three dimension harmonic traps exhibit spontaneous mass current at rest, whose direction depends on trap geometry. Under rotation various types of the order parameter textures are stabilized, including Mermin-Ho and Anderson-Toulouse-Chechetkin vortices. In a cigar shape trap spontaneous current flows longitudial to the rotation axis and thus perpendicular to the ordinary rotational current. These features, spontaneous mass current at rest and texture formation, can be used as diagnoses for p-wave superfluidity.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Phase slip phenomena in superconductors: from ordered to chaotic dynamics

We consider flux penetration to a 2D superconducting cylinder. We show that in the low field limit the kinetics is deterministic. In the strong field limit the dynamics becomes stochastic. Surprisingly the inhomogeneity in the cylinder reduces the level of stochasticity because of the predominance of Kelvin-Helmholtz vortices.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures (main text) and 1 page, 1 figure (supplementary material