- Letter
Topologically distinct atomic insulators
Phys. Rev. B 108, L041301 – Published 13 July, 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.108.L041301
Abstract
Topological classification of quantum solids often (if not always) groups all trivial atomic or normal insulators (NIs) into the same featureless family. As we argue here, this is not necessarily the case always. In particular, when the global phase diagram of electronic crystals harbors topological insulators with the band inversion at various time-reversal invariant momenta in the Brillouin zone, their proximal NIs display noninverted band-gap minima at . In such systems, once topological superconductors nucleate from NIs, the inversion of the Bogoliubov de Gennes bands takes place at , inheriting from the parent state. We showcase this (possibly general) proposal for two-dimensional time-reversal symmetry-breaking insulators. Then, distinct quantized thermal Hall conductivity and responses to dislocation lattice defects inside the paired states (tied with or ), in turn, unambiguously identify different parent atomic NIs.