Classification of mass terms in kagome semimetals

TL;DR

This paper classifies the possible gap-opening terms in kagome semimetals, analyzing how external perturbations or interactions can induce mass gaps at Dirac points, with implications for tunable quantum phases.

Contribution

It provides a systematic classification of sixteen gap-opening terms in kagome semimetals based on symmetry considerations and identifies microscopic realizations.

Findings

Classified 16 gap-opening terms according to broken symmetries

Identified microscopic models for these phases

Analyzed tunability of band structure in kagome materials

Abstract

In the last years, kagome materials received massive attention by virtue of being candidate hosts for a large variety of quantum phases: spin liquids, unconventional superconductivity, and topological phases of matter, to name the more exotic. One of the most interesting features is tunability: changing the filling, the non-interacting band structure can be tuned from flat bands to conventional metallic phases as well as to semimetals. In this paper we concentrate on the latter. At specific lattice filling the electronic bands have a semimetallic structure, hosting Dirac, massless quasiparticles, like in graphene or other layered two dimensional materials. Specifically, we determine what terms can be added to the nearest neighbor hopping that open at gap at said Dirac point. These terms can in principle arise through external perturbations, interactions or collective instabilities. We classify the sixteen possible gap-opening terms according to the broken symmetries. Furthermore, we identify concrete microscopic realisations allowing for an interpretation of these phases.