Topological Magnetoelectric Effect: Nonlinear Time-Reversal-Symmetric Response, Witten Effect, and Half-Integer Quantum Hall Effect

Abstract

Topological insulators (TIs) in three space dimensions can be characterized by a quantized magnetoelectric coefficient. However, this coupling does not have experimentally observable consequences in the presence of time-reversal symmetry, because the contributions of both bulk and surface states cancel each other. Instead, the characteristic response of a TI is a nonlinear magnetoelectric effect. Field theoretic aspects of the nonlinear magnetoelectric response and numerical calculations for experimentally relevant geometries are discussed. Distinct from this effect, the magnetoelectric coupling would bind a charge $\pm e/2$ in response to a monopole, which is referred to as Witten effect. If time reversal is broken explicitly, for instance, by a Zeeman field acting on the surface layer, the electromagnetic response of a TI can be described by a half-integer quantum Hall effect of surface electrons.