2015/12/02 by Jing Wang, Biao Lian, Shou-Cheng Zhang
Physics and Astronomy · #Axion #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Condensed matter physics #Dark matter #Magnetic field #Paramagnetism #Particle physics #Physics #Pseudoscalar #Quantum many-body systems #Quantum mechanics #Superlattice #Topological Materials and Phenomena #Topological insulator #Topology (electrical circuits) #cond-mat.mes-hall #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.93.045115
published as Phys. Rev. B 93, 045115 (2016) · 4.5 pages, 2 figures, 1 table
arxiv created 2015/12/02 · openalex publication_date 2016/01/13 · arxiv updated 2016/01/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
We propose that the dynamical axion field can be realized in a magnetic topological insulator superlattice or a topological paramagnetic insulator. The magnetic fluctuations of these systems produce a pseudoscalar field which has an axionic coupling to the electromagnetic field, and thus it gives a condensed-matter realization of the axion electrodynamics. Compared to the previously proposed dynamical axion materials where a long-range antiferromagnetic order is required, the systems proposed here have the advantage that only a uniform magnetization or a paramagnetic state is needed for the dynamic axion. We further propose several experiments to detect such a dynamical axion field.