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

Detecting D-Wave Pairing and Collective Modes in Fermionic Condensates with Bragg Scattering

We show how the appearance of d-wave pairing in fermionic condensates manifests itself in inelastic light scattering. Specifically, we calculate the Bragg scattering intensity from the dynamic structure factor and the spin susceptibility, which can be inferred from spin flip Raman transitions. This information provides a precise tool with which we can identify nontrivial correlations in the state of the system beyond the information contained in the density profile imaging alone. Due to the lack of Coulomb effects in neutral superfluids, this is also an opportunity to observe the Anderson-Bogoliubov collective mode

Theory of the high-frequency chiral optical response in a p_x+ip_y superconductor

The optical Hall conductivity and the polar Kerr angle are calculated as functions of temperature for a two-dimensional chiral p_x+ip_y superconductor, where the time-reversal symmetry is spontaneously broken. The theoretical estimate for the polar Kerr angle agrees by the order of magnitude with the recent experimental measurement in Sr2RuO4 by Xia et al. cond-mat/0607539. The theory predicts that the Kerr angle is proportional to the square of the superconducting energy gap and is inversely proportional to the cube of frequency, which can be verified experimentally.Comment: 4 pages, no figures, RevTeX. V.2: one reference and discussion of horizontal lines of nodes added. V.3: a typo corrected, and one reference added. V.4: two references added and minor stylistic changes made, as in the published versio

Edge electron states for quasi-one-dimensional organic conductors in the magnetic-field-induced spin-density-wave phases

We develop a microscopic picture of the electron states localized at the edges perpendicular to the chains in the Bechgaard salts in the quantum Hall regime. In a magnetic-field-induced spin-density-wave state (FISDW) characterized by an integer N, there exist N branches of chiral gapless edge excitations. Localization length is much longer and velocity much lower for these states than for the edge states parallel to the chains. We calculate the contribution of these states to the specific heat and propose a time-of-flight experiment to probe the propagating edge modes directly.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. V.2: Minor changes to the final version published in PR

Shockley model description of surface states in topological insulators

We show that the surface states in topological insulators can be understood based on a well-known Shockley model, a one-dimensional tight-binding model with two atoms per elementary cell, connected via alternating tunneling amplitudes. We generalize the one-dimensional model to the three-dimensional case corresponding to the sequence of layers connected via the amplitudes, which depend on the in-plane momentum p = (p_x,p_y). The Hamiltonian of the model is described a (2 x 2) Hamiltonian with the off-diagonal element t(k,p) depending also on the out-of-plane momentum k. We show that the complex function t(k,p) defines the properties of the surface states. The surface states exist for the in-plane momenta p, where the winding number of the function t(k,p) is non-zero as k is changed from 0 to 2pi. The sign of the winding number defines the sublattice on which the surface states are localized. The equation t(k,p)=0 defines a vortex line in the three-dimensional momentum space. The projection of the vortex line on the two-dimensional momentum p space encircles the domain where the surface states exist. We illustrate how our approach works for a well-known TI model on a diamond lattice. We find that different configurations of the vortex lines are responsible for the "weak" and "strong" topological insulator phases. The phase transition occurs when the vortex lines reconnect from spiral to circular form. We discuss the Shockley model description of Bi_2Se_3 and the applicability of the continuous approximation for the description of the topological edge states. We conclude that the tight-binding model gives a better description of the surface states.Comment: 18 pages, 17 figures; version 3: Sections I-IV revised, Section VII added, Refs. [33]-[35] added; Corresponds to the published versio

Sign reversals of the quantum Hall effect and helicoidal magnetic-field-induced spin-density waves in quasi-one-dimensional organic conductors

We study the effect of umklapp scattering on the magnetic-field-induced spin-density-wave phases, which are experimentally observed in the quasi-one-dimensional organic conductors of the Bechgaard salts family. Within the framework of the quantized nesting model, we show that umklapp processes may naturally explain sign reversals of the quantum Hall effect (QHE) observed in these conductors. Moreover, umklapp scattering can change the polarization of the spin-density wave (SDW) from linear (sinusoidal SDW) to circular (helicoidal SDW). The QHE vanishes in the helicoidal phases, but a magnetoelectric effect appears. These two characteristic properties may be utilized to detect the magnetic-field-induced helicoidal SDW phases experimentally.Comment: 4 pages, latex, 3 figure

Deconfined Fermions but Confined Coherence?

The cuprate superconductors and certain organic conductors exhibit transport which is qualitatively anisotropic, yet at the same time other properties of these materials strongly suggest the existence of a Fermi surface and low energy excitations with substantial free electron character. The former of these features is very difficult to account for if the material possesses three dimensional coherence, while the latter is inconsistent with a description based on a two dimensional fixed point. We therefore present a new proposal for these materials in which they are categorized by a fixed point at which transport in one direction is not renormalization group irrelevant, but is intrinsically incoherent, i.e. the incoherence is present in a pure system, at zero temperature. The defining property of such a state is that single electron coherence is confined to lower dimensional subspaces (planes or chains) so that it is impossible to observe interference effects between histories which involve electrons moving between these subspaces.Comment: 31 pages, REVTEX, 3 eps figures, epsf.tex macr

Dispersion Instability in Strongly Interacting Electron Liquids

We show that the low-density strongly interacting electron liquid, interacting via the long-range Coulomb interaction, could develop a dispersion instability at a critical density associated with the approximate flattening of the quasiparticle energy dispersion. At the critical density the quasiparticle effective mass diverges at the Fermi surface, but the signature of this Fermi surface instability manifests itself away from the Fermi momentum at higher densities. For densities below the critical density the system is unstable since the quasiparticle velocity becomes negative. We show that one physical mechanism underlying the dispersion instability is the emission of soft plasmons by the quasiparticles. The dispersion instability occurs both in two and three dimensional electron liquids. We discuss the implications of the dispersion instability for experiments at low electron densities.Comment: Accepted version for publicatio

Collective modes in a system with two spin-density waves: the `Ribault' phase of quasi-one-dimensional organic conductors

We study the long-wavelength collective modes in the magnetic-field-induced spin-density-wave (FISDW) phases experimentally observed in organic conductors of the Bechgaard salts family, focusing on phases that exhibit a sign reversal of the quantum Hall effect (Ribault anomaly). We have recently proposed that two SDW's coexist in the Ribault phase, as a result of Umklapp processes. When the latter are strong enough, the two SDW's become circularly polarized (helicoidal SDW's). In this paper, we study the collective modes which result from the presence of two SDW's. We find two Goldstone modes, an out-of-phase sliding mode and an in-phase spin-wave mode, and two gapped modes. The sliding Goldstone mode carries only a fraction of the total optical spectral weight, which is determined by the ratio of the amplitude of the two SDW's. In the helicoidal phase, all the spectral weight is pushed up above the SDW gap. We also point out similarities with phase modes in two-band or bilayer superconductors. We expect our conclusions to hold for generic two-SDW systems.Comment: Revised version, 25 pages, RevTex, 7 figure

Effect of umklapp scattering on the magnetic-field-induced spin-density waves in quasi-one-dimensional organic conductors

We study the effect of umklapp scattering on the magnetic-field-induced spin-density-wave (FISDW) phases which are experimentally observed in the quasi-one-dimensional organic conductors of the Bechgaard salts family. Within the framework of the quantized nesting model, we show that the transition temperature is determined by a modified Stoner criterion which includes the effect of umklapp scattering. We determine the SDW polarization (linear or circular) by analyzing the Ginzburg-Landau expansion of the free energy. We also study how umklapp processes modify the quantum Hall effect (QHE) and the spectrum of the FISDW phases. We find that umklapp scattering stabilizes phases which exhibit a sign reversal of the QHE, as experimentally observed in the Bechgaard salts. These ``negative'' phases are characterized by the simultaneous existence of two SDWs with comparable amplitudes. As the umklapp scattering strength increases, they may become helicoidal (circularly polarized SDWs). The QHE vanishes in the helicoidal phases, but a magnetoelectric effect appears. These two characteristic properties may be utilized to detect the magnetic-field-induced helicoidal SDW phases experimentally.Comment: Revtex, 27 pages, 9 figure