Lattice model of three-dimensional topological singlet superconductor with time-reversal symmetry

TL;DR

This paper investigates three-dimensional topological singlet superconductors with time-reversal symmetry, revealing their surface states, constructing a specific lattice model, and proposing an effective field theory description.

Contribution

It introduces a lattice model realizing a nontrivial topological phase with winding number ±2 and analyzes the effects of disorder on surface states.

Findings

Surface states are robust gapless Dirac fermions with power-law density of states.

Constructed a tight-binding model on the diamond lattice with topological phase.

Proposed an effective (3+1)D SU(2) Yang-Mills field theory with a theta-term.

Abstract

We study topological phases of time-reversal invariant singlet superconductors in three spatial dimensions. In these particle-hole symmetric systems the topological phases are characterized by an even-numbered winding number $\nu$. At a two-dimensional (2D) surface the topological properties of this quantum state manifest themselves through the presence of $\nu$ flavors of gapless Dirac fermion surface states, which are robust against localization from random impurities. We construct a tight-binding model on the diamond lattice that realizes a topologically nontrivial phase, in which the winding number takes the value $\nu =\pm 2$. Disorder corresponds to a (non-localizing) random SU(2) gauge potential for the surface Dirac fermions, leading to a power-law density of states $\rho(\epsilon) \sim \epsilon^{1/7}$. The bulk effective field theory is proposed to be the (3+1) dimensional SU(2) Yang-Mills theory with a theta-term at $\theta=\pi$.