Nodal Line Topological Superfluid and Multiply Protected Majorana Fermi Arc in a Three-Dimensional Time-Reversal-Invariant Superfluid Model

TL;DR

This paper introduces a three-dimensional time-reversal-invariant superfluid model with nodal lines and Majorana Fermi arcs, revealing new topological states protected by mirror and $Z_2$ symmetries, relevant to antiferromagnetic topological insulators.

Contribution

It proposes a novel 3D superfluid model exhibiting protected Majorana Fermi arcs and nodal lines, expanding the understanding of topological superfluids with time-reversal symmetry.

Findings

Identifies gapless phases with nodal lines protected by chiral symmetry.

Discovers gapped phases supporting time-reversal-invariant Majorana Fermi arcs.

Shows MFA are protected by mirror and $Z_2$ topological invariants.

Abstract

We theoretically study a time-reversal-invariant three-dimensional superfluid model by stacking in $z$ direction identical bilayer models with intralayer spin-orbit coupling and contrary Zeeman energy splitting for different layer, which has been suggested recently to realize two-dimensional time-reversal-invariant topological superfluid. We find that this model shows two kinds of topologically nontrivial phases: gapless phases with nodal lines in pairs protected by chiral symmetry and a gapped phase, both of which support time-reversal-invariant Majorana Fermi arc (MFA) on the $yz$ and $xz$ side surface. These MFA abide by time-reversal and particle-hole symmetries and are topologically protected by the winding numbers in mirror subspaces and $Z_2$ numbers of two-dimensional DIII class topological superfluid, different from MFA in the time-reversal broken Weyl superfluid protected by nonzero Chern number. This important observation means that MFA in our model represents a new type of topological state not explored previously. The Zeeman field configuration in our model is relevant to antiferromagnetic topological insulator MnBi$_2$Te$_4$, thus our work stimulates the further studies on superconducting effects in the realistic antiferromagnetic topological insulator.