Competing topological and Kondo insulator phases on a honeycomb lattice

We investigate the competition between the spin-orbit interaction of itinerant electrons and their Kondo coupling with local moments densely distributed on the honeycomb lattice. We find that the model at half-filling displays a quantum phase transition between topological and Kondo insulators at a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2013-07
Main Authors: Xiao-Yong, Feng, Dai, Jianhui, Chung-Hou, Chung, Si, Qimiao
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Competition
Conduction electrons
Coupling
Electron spin
Fermions
Honeycomb construction
Organic chemistry
Phase diagrams
Phase transitions
Spin-orbit interactions
Topological insulators
Topology
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Summary:We investigate the competition between the spin-orbit interaction of itinerant electrons and their Kondo coupling with local moments densely distributed on the honeycomb lattice. We find that the model at half-filling displays a quantum phase transition between topological and Kondo insulators at a nonzero Kondo coupling. In the Kondo-screened case, tuning the electron concentration can lead to a new topological insulator phase. The results suggest that the heavy-fermion phase diagram contains a new regime with a competition among topological, Kondo-coherent and magnetic states, and that the regime may be especially relevant to Kondo lattice systems with \(5d\)-conduction electrons. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results in the context of the recent experiments on SmB\(_6\) implicating the surface states of a topological insulator, as well as the existing experiments on the phase transitions in SmB\(_6\) under pressure and in CeNiSn under chemical pressure.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1206.0979