2019/01/31 by J. Böttcher, Christian Tutschku, C. Tutschku +2 · 1 citation
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Anomaly (physics) #Chiral anomaly #Condensed matter physics #Fermion #Graphene research and applications #Magnetic field #Parity (physics) #Phase transition #Physics #Quantum #Quantum Hall effect #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum mechanics #Quantum phase transition #Quantum phases #Topological Materials and Phenomena #Topological insulator #cond-mat.mes-hall #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.123.226602
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 226602 (2019) · 15 pages and 10 figures A few minor typos have been corrected, e.g., units in Eq. (4) have been corrected
openalex publication_date 2019/11/26 · arxiv created 2020/08/12 · arxiv updated 2020/08/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Recent experimental progress in condensed matter physics enables the observation of signatures of the parity anomaly in two-dimensional Dirac-like materials. Using effective field theories and analyzing band structures in external out-of-plane magnetic fields (orbital fields), we show that topological properties of quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) insulators are related to the parity anomaly. We demonstrate that the QAH phase survives in orbital fields, violates the Onsager relation, and can be therefore distinguished from a quantum Hall (QH) phase. As a fingerprint of the QAH phase in increasing orbital fields, we predict a transition from a quantized Hall plateau with σxy=-e2/h to a not perfectly quantized plateau, caused by scattering processes between counterpropagating QH and QAH edge states. This transition can be especially important in paramagnetic QAH insulators, such as (Hg,Mn)Te/CdTe quantum wells, in which exchange interaction and orbital fields compete.