Symmetry-protected spin gaps in quantum wires

TY - JOUR

T1 - Symmetry-protected spin gaps in quantum wires

AU - Li, Tommy

N1 - [Qdev]

PY - 2019/10/25

Y1 - 2019/10/25

N2 - This work shows that a strongly correlated phase which is gapped to collective spin excitations but gapless to charge fluctuations emerges as a universal feature in one-dimensional fermionic systems obeying certain discrete symmetries whenever one pair of spin-degenerate subbands is occupied and an arbitrarily weak spin-orbit interaction is present. This general result is independent of the details of the one-dimensional confinement, the fermionic spin, or nature of the spin-orbit interaction. In narrow-gap semiconductors, this gap may be of order 10 μeV. This strongly correlated phase may be identified both via an anomalous h/2e flux periodicity in Aharonov-Bohm oscillations and 2e periodic Coulomb blockade, features which reflect the existence of fermionic pairing despite the absence of superconductivity and the repulsive nature of the interaction.

AB - This work shows that a strongly correlated phase which is gapped to collective spin excitations but gapless to charge fluctuations emerges as a universal feature in one-dimensional fermionic systems obeying certain discrete symmetries whenever one pair of spin-degenerate subbands is occupied and an arbitrarily weak spin-orbit interaction is present. This general result is independent of the details of the one-dimensional confinement, the fermionic spin, or nature of the spin-orbit interaction. In narrow-gap semiconductors, this gap may be of order 10 μeV. This strongly correlated phase may be identified both via an anomalous h/2e flux periodicity in Aharonov-Bohm oscillations and 2e periodic Coulomb blockade, features which reflect the existence of fermionic pairing despite the absence of superconductivity and the repulsive nature of the interaction.

U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevB.100.155309

DO - 10.1103/PhysRevB.100.155309

M3 - Journal article

SN - 2469-9950

VL - 100

JO - Physical Review B

JF - Physical Review B

IS - 15

M1 - 155309

ER -