TY  - JOUR
A1  - Liu, Yuhai
A1  - Wang, Zhenjiu
A1  - Sato, Toshihiro
A1  - Hohenadler, Martin
A1  - Wang, Chong
A1  - Guo, Wenan
A1  - Assaad, Fakher F.
T1  - Superconductivity from the condensation of topological defects in a quantum spin-Hall insulator
JF  - Nature Communications
N2  - The discovery of quantum spin-Hall (QSH) insulators has brought topology to the forefront of condensed matter physics. While a QSH state from spin-orbit coupling can be fully understood in terms of band theory, fascinating many-body effects are expected if it instead results from spontaneous symmetry breaking. Here, we introduce a model of interacting Dirac fermions where a QSH state is dynamically generated. Our tuning parameter further allows us to destabilize the QSH state in favour of a superconducting state through proliferation of charge-2e topological defects. This route to superconductivity put forward by Grover and Senthil is an instance of a deconfined quantum critical point (DQCP). Our model offers the possibility to study DQCPs without a second length scale associated with the reduced symmetry between field theory and lattice realization and, by construction, is amenable to large-scale fermion quantum Monte Carlo simulations.
KW  - computational science
KW  - phase transitions and critical phenomena
KW  - topological insulators
Y1  - 2019
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-237024
VL  - 10
ER  -