Anomalous Landau levels and quantum oscillation in rotation-invariant insulators

TL;DR

This paper investigates whether anomalous Landau levels in insulators can produce quantum oscillations similar to those in metals, using effective-band models and numerical analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a semiclassical effective-band approach to predict anomalous Landau levels and their quantum oscillation effects in rotation-invariant insulators.

Findings

Effective-band description predicts ALLs in certain insulators.

Numerical calculations confirm ALL-induced quantum oscillations.

Quantum oscillations can occur without a zero-field Fermi surface.

Abstract

Landau levels in certain models are known to protrude into the zero-field energy gap. These are known as anomalous Landau levels (ALLs). We study whether ALLs can lead to Fermi-surface like quantum oscillation in the absence of a zero-field Fermi surface. Focusing on two-dimensional multi-band low-energy models of electrons with continuous rotation symmetry, we show that an effective-band description, akin to the semiclassical treatment of Landau level problems in metals, can be used to predict the Landau level spectrum, including possible ALLs. This description then describes ALL induced quantum oscillation for certain insulating models, which we demonstrate through numerical calculations.