Many-body breakdown of indirect gap in topological Kondo insulators

Journal: 

Phys. Rev. B 94, 121102(R)

Date: 

October, 2017

Authors: 

Marcin M. Wysokinski, Michele Fabrizio

We show that the inclusion of nonlocal correlation effects in a variational wave function for the ground state of a topological Anderson lattice Hamiltonian is capable of describing both topologically trivial insulating phases and nontrivial ones characterized by an indirect gap, as well as its closure at the transition into a metallic phase. The method, though applied to an oversimplified model, thus captures the metallic and insulating states that are indeed observed in a variety of Kondo semiconductors, while accounting for topologically nontrivial band structures.