Topological 'Luttinger' invariants protected by non-symmorphic symmetry in semimetals

TL;DR

This paper introduces topological 'Luttinger' invariants in non-symmorphic crystals that protect semimetallic states and relate to band touching, extending traditional Fermi surface concepts to topological invariants.

Contribution

It generalizes Luttinger invariants to non-symmorphic crystals, revealing their role in protecting semimetallic phases and linking topology to gapless band structures.

Findings

Luttinger invariants can be nonzero even when Fermi volume vanishes.

Non-symmorphic symmetries prevent trivial band insulators at generic fillings.

Invariants distinguish different classes of 2D and 3D semimetals.

Abstract

Luttinger's theorem is a fundamental result in the theory of interacting Fermi systems: it states that the volume inside the Fermi surface is left invariant by interactions, if the number of particles is held fixed. Although this is traditionally justified using perturbation theory, it can be viewed as arising from a momentum balance argument that examines the response of the ground state to the insertion of a single flux quantum [M. Oshikawa, Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 3370 (2000)]. This reveals that the Fermi sea volume is a topologically protected quantity. Extending this approach, I show that spinless or spin-rotation-preserving fermionic systems in non-symmorphic crystals possess generalized topological 'Luttinger invariants' that can be nonzero even in cases where the Fermi sea volume vanishes. A nonzero Luttinger invariant then forces energy bands to touch, leading to semimetals whose gaplessness is thus rooted in topology; opening a gap without symmetry breaking automatically triggers fractionalization. The existence of these invariants is linked to the inability of non-symmorphic crystals to host band insulating ground states except at special fillings. I exemplify the use of these new invariants by showing that they distinguish various classes of two- and three-dimensional semimetals.