Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 23, 2026

Experimental Methods for Spin- and Angle-Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy Combined with Polarization-Variable Laser
Published on: June 28, 2018
Topological mott insulator in three-dimensional systems with quadratic band touching
Igor F Herbut1, Lukas Janssen1
1Department of Physics, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6, Canada.
Abstract:
We argue that a three-dimensional electronic system with the Fermi level at the quadratic band touching point such as HgTe could be unstable with respect to the spontaneous formation of the (topological) Mott insulator at arbitrary weak long-range Coulomb interaction. The mechanism of the instability can be understood as the collision of Abrikosov's non-Fermi liquid fixed point with another, quantum critical, fixed point, which approaches it in the coupling space as the system's dimensionality d→dlow+, with the "lower critical dimension" 2
Related Concept Videos
Band Theory
The energy difference between these bands is known as the band gap.
Conductor, Semiconductor,...
Valence Bond Theory
Phase Diagrams of Ternary Systems
Energy Bands in Solids
Band Formation:
When atoms are brought close together, as in a solid, these discrete energy levels begin to split due to the overlap of electron orbitals from adjacent atoms. This split occurs because of the Pauli exclusion principle, which states...
Theory of Metallic Conduction
In this theory, Newton's second law of motion is used to determine the acceleration of an electron in the presence of an applied electric field. Then, its velocity is expressed via this acceleration.
An electron moves through the crystal, containing positive ions,...
Semiconductors
Metals such as copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), or lead (Pb) have low resistivity and feature conduction bands that are either not fully occupied or overlap with the valence band, making a bandgap non-existent. This allows electrons in the highest energy levels of the valence band to easily transition to the conduction band upon gaining...

