Helical Liquid and the Edge of Quantum Spin Hall Systems

Journal Article · Tue Mar 02 00:00:00 EST 2010 · Physical Review Letters

OSTI ID:973054

Wu, C

The edge states of the recently proposed quantum spin Hall systems constitute a new symmetry class of one-dimensional liquids dubbed the 'helical liquid,' where the spin orientation is determined by the direction of electron motion. We prove a no-go theorem which states that a helical liquid with an odd number of components cannot be constructed in a purely 1D lattice system. In a helical liquid with an odd number of components, a uniform gap in the ground state can appear when the time-reversal symmetry is spontaneously broken by interactions. On the other hand, a correlated two-particle backscattering term by an impurity can become relevant while keeping the time-reversal invariance.

• Research Organization: SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76SF00515
• OSTI ID: 973054
• Report Number(s): SLAC-REPRINT-2010-054; PRLTAO; TRN: US201006%%270
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 96, Issue 10; ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
BACKSCATTERING
ELECTRONS
GROUND STATES
SPIN
SPIN ORIENTATION
SYMMETRY
T INVARIANCE
MATSCI