Charge and spin fractionalization in strongly correlated topological insulators

We construct an effective topological Landau-Ginzburg theory that describes general SU(2) incompressible quantum liquids of strongly correlated particles in two spatial dimensions. This theory characterizes the fractionalization of quasiparticle quantum numbers and statistics in relation to the topological ground-state symmetries, and generalizes the Chern-Simons, BF and hierarchical effective gauge theories to an arbitrary representation of the SU(2) symmetry group. Our main focus are fractional topological insulators with time-reversal symmetry, which are treated as generalizations of the SU(2) quantum Hall effect.Comment: 8 pages, published versio

Reduction of Josephson critical current in short ballistic SNS weak links

We present fully self-consistent calculations of the thermodynamic properties of three-dimensional clean SNS Josephson junctions, where S is an s-wave short-coherence-length superconductor and N is a clean normal metal. The junction is modeled on an infinite cubic lattice such that the transverse width of the S is the same as that of the N, and its thickness is tuned from the short to long limit. Both the reduced order parameter near the SN boundary and the short coherence length depress the critical Josephson current $I_c$, even in short junctions. This is contrasted with recent measurements on SNS junctions finding much smaller $I_cR_N$ products than expected from the standard (non-self consistent and quasiclassical) predictions. We also find unusual current-phase relations, a ``phase anti-dipole'' spatial distribution of the self-consistently determined contribution to the macroscopic phase, and an ``unexpected'' minigap in the local density of states within the N region.Comment: 5 pages, 4 embedded EPS figure

Pair density wave instability and Cooper pair insulators in gapped fermion systems

By analyzing simple models of fermions in lattice potentials we argue that the zero-temperature pairing instability of any ideal band-insulator occurs at a finite momentum. The resulting supersolid state is known as "pair density wave". The pairing momentum at the onset of instability is generally incommensurate as a result of phase-space restrictions and relative strengths of interband and intraband pairing. However, commensurate pairing occurs in the strong-coupling limit and becomes a Cooper-channel analogue of the Halperin-Rice exciton condensation instability in indirect bandgap semiconductors. The exceptional sensitivity of incommensurate pairing to quantum fluctuations can lead to a strongly-correlated insulating regime and a non-BCS transition, even in the case of weak coupling as shown by an exact renormalization group analysis.Comment: Proceedings article for SCES 2010. To appear in Journal of Physics: Conference Serie

Can Non-Equilibrium Spin Hall Accumulation be Induced in Ballistic Nanostructures?

We demonstrate that flow of longitudinal unpolarized current through a ballistic two-dimensional electron gas with Rashba spin-orbit coupling will induce nonequilibrium spin accumulation which has opposite sign for the two lateral edges and it is, therefore, the principal observable signature of the spin Hall effect in two-probe semiconductor nanostructures. The magnitude of its out-of-plane component is gradually diminished by static disorder, while it can be enhanced by an in-plane transverse magnetic field. Moreover, our prediction of the longitudinal component of the spin Hall accumulation, which is insensitive to the reversal of the bias voltage, offers a smoking gun to differentiate experimentally between the extrinsic, intrinsic, and mesoscopic spin Hall mechanisms.Comment: 5 pages, 3 color EPS figures; published versio

Suppression of the "quasiclassical" proximity gap in correlated-metal--superconductor structures

We study the energy and spatial dependence of the local density of states in a superconductor--correlated-metal--superconductor Josephson junction, where the correlated metal is a non-Fermi liquid (described by the Falicov-Kimball model). Many-body correlations are treated with dynamical mean-field theory, extended to inhomogeneous systems. While quasiclassical theories predict a minigap in the spectrum of a disordered Fermi liquid which is proximity-coupled within a mesoscopic junction, we find that increasing electron correlations destroy any minigap that might be opened in the absence of many-body correlations.Comment: 5 pages, 3 embedded EPS figures; some issues clarified with new result presented in the inset of Fig.