Inducing a many-body topological state of matter through Coulomb-engineered local interactions

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel method to induce topological many-body states using Coulomb interaction engineering, demonstrated through realistic modeling in one-dimensional quantum-dot chains, expanding the toolkit for topological matter creation.

Contribution

It introduces a new approach to generate topological excitations solely through dielectric-controlled Coulomb interactions in trivial band structures.

Findings

Coulomb interactions can be engineered via substrate screening.

Topological many-body states can emerge without topologically non-trivial single-particle bands.

Realistic modeling shows feasibility in quantum-dot chains.

Abstract

The engineering of artificial systems hosting topological excitations is at the heart of current condensed matter research. Most of these efforts focus on single-particle properties neglecting possible engineering routes via the modifications of the fundamental many-body interactions. Interestingly, recent experimental breakthroughs have shown that Coulomb interactions can be efficiently controlled by substrate screening engineering. Inspired by this success } we propose a simple platform in which topologically non-trivial many-body excitations emerge solely from dielectrically-engineered Coulomb interactions in an otherwise topologically trivial single-particle band structure. Furthermore, by performing a realistic microscopic modeling of screening engineering, we demonstrate how our proposal can be realized in one-dimensional systems such as quantum-dot chains. Our results put forward Coulomb engineering as a powerful tool to create topological excitations, with potential applications in a variety of solid-state platforms.