Dual Dirac liquid on the surface of the electron topological insulator

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel non-Fermi liquid surface state of topological insulators characterized by Dirac fermions coupled to a gauge field, revealing new dualities and connections to quantum Hall states.

Contribution

It proposes a dual Dirac liquid surface state for topological insulators, linking it to bulk dual descriptions and various known surface phases.

Findings

Identifies a gapless surface state with Dirac fermions coupled to a U(1) gauge field.

Shows how this dual Dirac liquid relates to known surface states like quantum Hall and superconducting phases.

Connects the dual Dirac liquid to phenomena in the half-filled Landau level.

Abstract

We discuss a non-fermi liquid gapless metallic surface state of the topological band insulator. It has an odd number of gapless Dirac fermions coupled to a non-compact U(1) gauge field. This can be viewed as a vortex dual to the conventional Dirac fermion surface state. This surface duality is a reflection of a bulk dual description discussed recently for the gauged topological insulator. All the other known surface states can be conveniently accessed from the dual Dirac liquid, including the surface quantum hall state, the Fu-Kane superconductor, the gapped symmetric topological order and the "composite Dirac liquid". We also discuss the physical properties of the dual Dirac liquid, and its connection to the half-filled Landau level.