Chiral universality class of normal-superconducting and exciton condensation transitions on surface of topological insulator

Abstract

New two-dimensional systems such as the surfaces of topological insulators (TIs) and graphene offer the possibility of experimentally investigating situations considered exotic just a decade ago. These situations include the quantum phase transition of the chiral type in electronic systems with a relativistic spectrum. Phonon-mediated (conventional) pairing in the Dirac semimetal appearing on the surface of a TI causes a transition into a chiral superconducting state, and exciton condensation in these gapless systems has long been envisioned in the physics of narrow-band semiconductors. Starting from the microscopic Dirac Hamiltonian with local attraction or repulsion, the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer type of Gaussian approximation is developed in the framework of functional integrals. It is shown that owing to an ultrarelativistic dispersion relation, there is a quantum critical point governing the zero-temperature transition to a superconducting state or the exciton condensed state. Quantum transitions having critical exponents differ greatly from conventional ones and belong to the chiral universality class. We discuss the application of these results to recent experiments in which surface superconductivity was found in TIs and estimate the feasibility of phonon pairing.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

topological insulator / Weyl semimetal / superconductivity / quantum criticality

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