Fractionalized Topological Insulators

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent theoretical advances in fractionalized topological insulators, a class of strongly correlated materials where electron fractionalization leads to phenomena beyond traditional band theory.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of fractionalized topological insulators and discusses how strong correlations and electron fractionalization challenge conventional band theory descriptions.

Findings

Fractionalized topological insulators exhibit novel quantum states.

Electron fractionalization fundamentally alters topological properties.

Theoretical models predict unique experimental signatures.

Abstract

Topological insulators have emerged as a major topic of condensed matter physics research with several novel applications proposed. Although there are now a number of established experimental examples of materials in this class, all of them can be described by theories based on electronic band structure, which implies that they do not possess electronic correlations strong enough to fundamentally change this theoretical description. Here, we review recent theoretical progress in the description of a class of strongly correlated topological insulators - fractionalized topological insulators - where band theory fails dramatically due to the fractionalization of the electron into other degrees of freedom.