Interfacial line energy of a topological phase
Phys. Rev. B 112, 245159 – Published 23 December, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/zndb-hzkk
Abstract
In interacting topological systems, Landau-like order parameters interplay with the band topology of fermions. The physics of domain formation in such systems can get significantly altered due to the presence of topological fermions. In this work, we show that coupling a topological fermionic field to a scalar field can drastically modify the latter's nucleation processes. We find that the existence of nontrivial fermionic boundary modes on the nucleating droplets of the scalar field leads to substantial quantum corrections to the interface energy. This leads to an increase in the size of the critical nucleus beyond which unrestricted droplet growth happens. To illustrate the phenomena, we devise a minimal model of fermions in a Chern insulating system coupled to a classical Ising field in two spatial dimensions. Using a combination of analytic and numerical methods, we conclusively demonstrate that topological phases have a characteristic quantum correction to the interfacial line energy. Apart from material systems, our work opens up a host of questions regarding the impact of fermionic topological terms on classical phase transitions and associated criticality.
