Fractional Wigner Crystal in the Helical Luttinger Liquid

The properties of the strongly interacting edge states of two dimensional topological insulators in the presence of two-particle backscattering are investigated. We find an anomalous behavior of the density-density correlation functions, which show oscillations that are neither of Friedel nor of Wig...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2015-11, Vol.115 (20), p.206402-206402, Article 206402
Main Authors: Traverso Ziani, N, Crépin, F, Trauzettel, B
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:The properties of the strongly interacting edge states of two dimensional topological insulators in the presence of two-particle backscattering are investigated. We find an anomalous behavior of the density-density correlation functions, which show oscillations that are neither of Friedel nor of Wigner type: they, instead, represent a Wigner crystal of fermions of fractional charge e/2, with e the electron charge. By studying the Fermi operator, we demonstrate that the state characterized by such fractional oscillations still bears the signatures of spin-momentum locking. Finally, we compare the spin-spin correlation functions and the density-density correlation functions to argue that the fractional Wigner crystal is characterized by a nontrivial spin texture.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.206402