Superluminal tachyon-like excitations of Dirac fermions in a topological insulator junction

We have considered a system of two topological insulators and have determined the properties of the surface states at the junction. Here we report that these states, under certain conditions exhibit superluminous (tachyonic) dispersion of the Dirac fermions. Although superluminal excitations are kno...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Europhysics letters 2012-10, Vol.100 (1), p.17002
Main Authors: Apalkov, Vadim M., Chakraborty, Tapash
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
03.30.+p
73.20.-r
73.43.-f
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Summary:We have considered a system of two topological insulators and have determined the properties of the surface states at the junction. Here we report that these states, under certain conditions exhibit superluminous (tachyonic) dispersion of the Dirac fermions. Although superluminal excitations are known to exist in optical systems, this is the first demonstration of possible tachyonic excitations in a purely electronic system. The first ever signature of tachyons could therefore be found experimentally in a topological insulator junction.
ISSN:0295-5075
1286-4854
DOI:10.1209/0295-5075/100/17002