Nontrivial Triplon Topology and Triplon Liquid in Kitaev-Heisenberg-type Excitonic Magnets

The combination of strong spin-orbit coupling and correlations, e.g., in ruthenates and iridates, has been proposed as a means to realize quantum materials with nontrivial topological properties. We discuss here Mott insulators where on-site spin-orbit coupling favors a local J_{tot}=0 singlet ground state. We investigate excitations into a low-lying triplet, triplons, and find them to acquire nontrivial band topology in a magnetic field. We also comment on magnetic states resulting from triplon condensation, where we find, in addition to the same ordered phases known from the J_{tot}=1/2 Kitaev-Heisenberg model, a triplon liquid taking the parameter space of Kitaev's spin liquid.