arXiv subjects

Juan L. Mañes

Publications and source records attributed to Juan L. Mañes.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Building blocks of topological band theory for photonic crystals

We derive a framework for classifying topological bands in three-dimensional photonic band structures, where the zero frequency polarization singularity implied by Maxwell's equations complicates the direct application of existing symmetry-based approaches. Building on recent advances in the regularization of photonic bands, we use the recently introduced concept of stable real-space invariants (SRSIs) to show how photonic band structures can be unambiguously characterized in terms of equivalence classes of band representations. We classify topologically trivial photonic bands using SRSIs, treating them as the fundamental building blocks of 3D photonic band structures. This means that if certain bands cannot be constructed from these building blocks, they are necessarily topological. Furthermore, we distinguish between photonic and electronic band structures by analyzing which SRSI values are allowed in systems with and without polarization singularity. We also explore the impact of the polarization singularity on the behavior of Wilson loops, providing new insights into the topological classification of 3D photonic systems.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2025

Photostriction-Driven Phase Transition in Layered Chiral NbOX$_2$ Crystals: Electrical-Field-Controlled Enantiomer Selectivity

Chiral crystals offer an unique platform for controlling structural handedness through external stimuli. However, the ability to select between structural enantiomers remains challenging, both theoretically and experimentally. In this work, we demonstrate a two-step pathway for enantiomer selectivity in layered chiral NbOX$_2$ (X = Cl, Br, I) crystals based on photostriction-driven phase transitions. Ab-initio simulations reveal that optical excitation is capable of inducing a structural phase transition in NbOX$_2$ from the monoclinic ($C2$) ground state to the higher-symmetry ($C2/m$) structure. In the resulting transient high-symmetry state, an applied electric field breaks the residual inversion-symmetry degeneracy, selectively stabilizing one enantiomeric final state configuration over the other. Our results establish a combined optical-electrical control scheme for chiral materials, enabling reversible and non-contact enantiomer selection with potential applications in ultrafast switching, optoelectronics, and chiral information storage.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2023

Topology of SmB6 revisited by means of topological quantum chemistry

The mixed-valence compound SmB6 with partially filled samarium 4f flat bands hybridizing with 5d conduction bands is a paramount example of a correlated topological heavy-fermion system. In this study we revisit the topology of SmB6 with the band theory paradigm and uncover previously overlooked aspects resulting from the formation of multiple topological gaps in the electronic structure. By invoking topological quantum chemistry (TQC) we provide a detailed classification of the strong and crystalline topological features that derive from the existence of such topological gaps. To corroborate this classification, we calculate Wilson loops and simulate the surface electronic structure using a minimal tight-binding model, allowing us to describe its surface states and confirm the crystalline topology. We finally discuss its implications for experiments.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2022

Catalogue of topological phonon materials

Phonons play a crucial role in many properties of solid state systems, such as thermal and electrical conductivity, neutron scattering and associated effects or superconductivity. Hence, it is expected that topological phonons will also lead to rich and unconventional physics and the search of materials hosting topological phonons becomes a priority in the field. In electronic crystalline materials, a large part of the topological properties of Bloch states can be indicated by their symmetry eigenvalues in reciprocal space. This has been adapted to the high-throughput calculations of topological materials, and more than half of the stoichiometric materials on the databases are found to be topological insulators or semi-metals. Based on the existing phonon materials databases, here we have performed the first catalogue of topological phonon bands for more than ten thousand three-dimensional crystalline materials. Using topological quantum chemistry, we calculate the band representations, compatibility relations, and band topologies of each isolated set of phonon bands for the materials in the phonon databases. We have also calculated the real space invariants for all the topologically trivial bands and classified them as atomic and obstructed atomic bands. In particular, surface phonon modes (dispersion) are calculated on different cleavage planes for all the materials. Remarkably, we select more than one thousand "ideal" non-trivial phonon materials to fascinate the future experimental studies. All the data-sets obtained in the the high-throughput calculations are used to build a Topological Phonon Database.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2022

Glide Symmetry Protected Higher-Order Topological Insulators from Semimetals with butterfly-like Nodal Lines

Most topological insulators discovered today in spinful systems can be transformed from topological semimetals (TSMs) with vanishing bulk gap via introducing the spin-orbit coupling (SOC), which manifests the intrinsic links between the gapped TI phases and the gapless TSMs. Recently, we have proposed a new family of TSMs in time-reversal invariant {\it spinless} systems, which host butterfly-like nodal-lines (NLs) consisting of a pair of identical concentric intersecting coplanar ellipses (CICE). In this Communication, we unveil the intrinsic link between this exotic class of nodal-line semimetals (NLSMs) and a $\mathbb{Z}_{4}$ = 2 topological crystalline insulator (TCI), by including substantial SOC. We demonstrate that in three space groups ({\it i.e.} $Pbam$ (No.55), $P4/mbm$ (No.127) and $P4_2/mbc$ (No.135)), the TCI supports a fourfold Dirac fermion on the (001) surface protected by two glide symmetries, which originates from the intertwined drumhead surface states of the CICE NLs. The higher order topology is further demonstrated by the emergence of one-dimensional helical hinge states, indicating a new higher order topological insulator protected by a glide symmetry.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2021

Cubic Hall viscosity in three-dimensional topological semimetals

The nondissipative (Hall) viscosity is known to play an interesting role in two-dimensional (2D) topological states of matter, in the hydrodynamic regime of correlated materials, and in classical active fluids with broken time-reversal symmetry (TRS). However, generalizations of these effects to 3D have remained elusive. In this work, we address this question by studying the Hall viscoelastic response of 3D crystals. We show that for systems with tetrahedral symmetries, there exist new, intrinsically 3D Hall viscosity coefficients that cannot be obtained via a reduction to a quasi-2D system. To study these coefficients, we specialize to a theoretically and experimentally motivated tight-binding model for a chiral magnetic metal in (magnetic) space group [(M)SG] P2$_1$3 (No. 198.9), a nonpolar group of recent experimental interest that hosts both chiral magnets and topological semimetals (TSMs). Using the Kubo formula for viscosity, we compute two forms of the Hall viscosity, phonon and ``momentum'' (conventional) and show that for the tight-binding model we consider, both forms realize the novel cubic Hall viscosity. We conclude by discussing the implication of our results for transport in 2D magnetic metals and discuss some candidate materials in which these effects may be observed.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Filling-Enforced Obstructed Atomic Insulators

Topological band theory has achieved great success in the high-throughput search for topological band structures both in paramagnetic and magnetic crystal materials. However, a significant proportion of materials are topologically trivial insulators at the Fermi level. In this paper, we show that, remarkably, for a subset of the topologically trivial insulators, knowing only their electron number and the Wyckoff positions of the atoms we can separate them into two groups: the obstructed atomic insulator (OAI) and the atomic insulator (AI). The interesting group, the OAI, have a center of charge not localized on the atoms. Using the theory of topological quantum chemistry, in this work we first derive the necessary and sufficient conditions for a topologically trivial insulator to be a filling enforced obstructed atomic insulator (feOAI) in the 1651 Shubnikov space groups. Remarkably, the filling enforced criteria enable the identification of obstructed atomic bands without knowing the representations of the band structures. Hence, no ab-initio calculations are needed for the filling enforced criteria, although they are needed to obtain the band gaps. With the help of the Topological Quantum Chemistry website, we have performed a high-throughput search for feOAIs and have found that 957 ICSD entries (638 unique materials) are paramagnetic feOAIs, among which 738 (475) materials have an indirect gap. The metallic obstructed surface states of feOAIs are also showcased by several material examples.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2021

Cubic 3D Chern photonic insulators with orientable large Chern vectors

Time Reversal Symmetry (TRS) broken topological phases provide gapless surface states protected by topology, regardless of additional internal symmetries, spin or valley degrees of freedom. Despite the numerous demonstrations of 2D topological phases, few examples of 3D topological systems with TRS breaking exist. In this article, we devise a general strategy to design 3D Chern insulating (3D CI) cubic photonic crystals in a weakly TRS broken environment with orientable and arbitrarly large Chern vectors. The designs display topologically protected chiral and unidirectional surface states with disjoint equifrequency loops. The resulting crystals present the following novel characteristics: First, by increasing the Chern number, multiple surface states channels can be supported. Second, the Chern vector can be oriented along any direction simply changing the magnetization axis, opening up larger 3D CI/3D CI interfacing possibilities as compared to 2D. Third, by lowering the TRS breaking requirements, the system is ideal for realistic photonic applications where the magnetic response is weak.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Chiral Torsional Effects in Anomalous Fluids in Thermal Equilibrium

Using the similarity between spacetime torsion and axial gauge couplings, we study torsional contributions to the equilibrium partition function in a stationary background. In the case of a charged fluid minimally coupled to torsion, we spot the existence of linear torsional magnetic and vortical effects, while the axial-vector current and the spin energy potential do not receive corrections in the torsion at linear order. The covariant energy-momentum tensor, on the other hand, does contain terms linear in the torsion tensor. The case of a two-flavor hadronic superfluid is also analyzed, and the torsional contributions to the constitutive relations computed. Our results show the existence of a torsional electric chiral effect mediated by the charged pions.

hep-th↗

arXiv2021

Constitutive relations of a chiral hadronic fluid

We study the role of non-abelian anomalies in relativistic fluids. To this end, we compute the local functional that solves the anomaly equations, and obtain analytical expressions for the covariant currents and the Bardeen-Zumino terms. We particularize these results to a background with two flavors, and consider the cases of unbroken and broken chiral symmetry. Finally, we provide explicit results for the constitutive relations of chiral nuclear matter interacting with external electromagnetic fields and in presence of chiral imbalance. We emphasize the non-dissipative nature of the chiral electric effect.

hep-th↗

arXiv2021

Fragile phonon topology on the honeycomb lattice with time-reversal symmetry

We use the methods of topological quantum chemistry to explore the topology of phonons on time-reversal symmetric crystals with the structure of the planar honeycomb (layer group $p6/mmm$). This approach is not tied to a particular model of atomic vibrations, but is applied to the most general dynamical matrix constrained only by the symmetries of the system. We show that four distinct fragile topological phonon phases are generically possible. Truncating the dynamical matrix to third nearest neighbors yields a model that realizes the different phonon topologies, characterized by the existence of phononic edge and corner modes and by Wilson loops with winding numbers one and two. Fitting the dynamical matrix to the DFT phonon bands shows that graphene is not very far from a topologically nontrivial phonon phase.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

IrRep: symmetry eigenvalues and irreducible representations of ab initio band structures

We present IrRep - a Python code that calculates the symmetry eigenvalues of electronic Bloch states in crystalline solids and the irreducible representations under which they transform. As input it receives bandstructures computed with state-of-the-art Density Functional Theory codes such as VASP, Quantum Espresso, or Abinit, as well as any other code that has an interface to Wannier90. Our code is applicable to materials in any of the 230 space groups and double groups preserving time-reversal symmetry with or without spin-orbit coupling included, for primitive or conventional unit cells. This makes IrRep a powerful tool to systematically analyze the connectivity and topological classification of bands, as well as to detect insulators with non-trivial topology, following the Topological Quantum Chemistry formalism: IrRep can generate the input files needed to calculate the (physical) elementary band representations and the symmetry-based indicators using the CheckTopologicalMat routine of the Bilbao Crystallographic Server. It is also particularly suitable for interfaces with other plane-waves based codes, due to its flexible structure.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2020

Novel Family of Topological Semimetals with Butterfly-like Nodal Lines

In recent years, the exotic properties of topological semimetals (TSMs) have attracted great attention and significant efforts have been made in seeking for new topological phases and material realization. In this work, we propose a new family of TSMs which harbors an unprecedented nodal line (NL) landscape consisting of a pair of concentric intersecting coplanar ellipses (CICE) at half-filling. Meanwhile, the CICE at half-filling guarantees the presence of a second pair of CICE beyond half-filling. Both CICEs are linked at four-fold degenerate points (FDPs) at zone boundaries. In addition, we identify the generic criteria for the existence of the CICE in a time reversal invariant {\it spinless} fermion system or a spinfull system with negligible spin-orbital coupling (SOC). Consequently, 9 out of 230 space groups (SGs) are feasible for hosting CICE whose location centers in the first Brillouin zone (BZ) are identified. We provide a simplest model with SG $Pbam$ (No. 55) which exhibits CICE, and the exotic intertwined drumhead surface states, induced by double-band-inversions. Finally, we propose a series of material candidates that host butterfly-like CICE NLs, such as, ZrX$_2$ (X=P,As), GeTe$_5$Tl$_2$, CYB$_2$ and Al$_2$Y$_3$.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

Anomalous Currents and Constitutive Relations of a Chiral Hadronic Superfluid

The anomalous currents of two-flavor chiral nuclear matter in the presence of chiral imbalance are computed, using recently developed methods exploiting generalized transgression, which facilitates the evaluation of both the equilibrium partition function and the covariant currents. The constitutive relations for both the broken and unbroken phase of the theory are studied and the out-of-equilibrium nondissipative transport coefficients determined. In the superfluid phase, the vector covariant currents exhibit nondissipative chiral electric, magnetic, and vortical effects, the latter governed by chiral imbalance.

hep-th↗

arXiv2018

Non-Abelian Anomalous (Super)Fluids in Thermal Equilibrium from Differential Geometry

We apply differential geometry methods to the computation of the anomaly-induced hydrodynamic equilibrium partition function. Implementing the imaginary-time prescription on the Chern-Simons effective action on a stationary background, we obtain general closed expressions for both the invariant and anomalous part of the partition function. This is applied to the Wess-Zumino-Witten action for Goldstone modes, giving the equilibrium partition function of superfluids. In all cases, we also study the anomaly-induced gauge currents and energy-momentum tensor, providing explicit expressions for them.

hep-th↗

arXiv2015

Generalized effective hamiltonian for graphene under non-uniform strain

We use a symmetry approach to construct a systematic derivative expansion of the low energy effective Hamiltonian modifying the continuum Dirac description of graphene in the presence of non-uniform elastic deformations. We extract all experimentally relevant terms and describe their physical significance. Among them there is a new gap-opening term that describes the Zeeman coupling of the elastic pseudomagnetic field and the pseudospin. We determine the value of the couplings using a generalized tight binding model.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Parity odd equilibrium partition function in 2+1 dimensions

We use Schwinger's proper time method to compute the parity odd contributions to the U(1) current and energy-momentum tensor of an ideal gas of fermions in 2+1 dimensions in the presence of static gauge and gravitational backgrounds. From these results the equilibrium partition function at first order in the derivative expansion is explicitly obtained by integration. The form of the computed partition function is consistent with general arguments based on Kaluza-Klein and gauge invariance.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Parity violating gravitational response and anomalous constitutive relations

We compute the parity violating part of the time-dependent gravitational response function of an ideal gas of Weyl fermions up to third order in the derivative expansion and give its full tensorial structure. Our main results are two functions that parametrize the energy-momentum tensor in terms of gauge-invariant combinations of vector and tensor metric perturbations. The zero frequency limit of these functions is related with the anomalous constitutive relations and with the full anomalous partition function in the presence of gauge and mixed anomalies. In particular, our results imply the existence of a previously unknown invariant contribution to the parity-odd partition function at third derivative order that we explicitly construct. Beyond the static limit, the gravitational response function may provide valuable insights into time-dependent phenomena driven by anomalies.

hep-th↗