Landau theory of helical Fermi liquids

TL;DR

This paper develops a Landau theory for helical Fermi liquids on topological insulator surfaces, incorporating spin-momentum locking and Berry phase effects, and explores their stability and collective excitations.

Contribution

It introduces a projected Landau theory for helical Fermi liquids that accounts for topological effects and distinguishes it from conventional Fermi liquids.

Findings

Ten independent Landau parameters per angular momentum channel in the presence of rotation symmetry.

Projection onto the Fermi surface modifies angular momentum of quasiparticle interactions.

Derived criteria for Fermi surface instabilities and collective mode dispersions.

Abstract

Landau's phenomenological theory of Fermi liquids is a fundamental paradigm in many-body physics that has been remarkably successful in explaining the properties of a wide range of interacting fermion systems, such as liquid helium-3, nuclear matter, and electrons in metals. The d-dimensional boundaries of (d+1)-dimensional topological phases of matter such as quantum Hall systems and topological insulators provide new types of many-fermion systems that are topologically distinct from conventional d-dimensional many-fermion systems. We construct a phenomenological Landau theory for the two-dimensional helical Fermi liquid found on the surface of a three-dimensional time-reversal invariant topological insulator. In the presence of rotation symmetry, interactions between quasiparticles are described by ten independent Landau parameters per angular momentum channel, by contrast with the two (symmetric and antisymmetric) Landau parameters for a conventional spin-degenerate Fermi liquid. We then project quasiparticle states onto the Fermi surface and obtain an effectively spinless, projected Landau theory with a single projected Landau parameter per angular momentum channel that captures the spin-momentum locking or nontrivial Berry phase of the Fermi surface. As a result of this nontrivial Berry phase, projection to the Fermi surface can increase or lower the angular momentum of the quasiparticle interactions. We derive equilibrium properties, criteria for Fermi surface instabilities, and collective mode dispersions in terms of the projected Landau parameters. We briefly discuss experimental means of measuring projected Landau parameters.