arXiv subjects

Peng-Lu Zhao

Publications and source records attributed to Peng-Lu Zhao.

15 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

3D Quantum Hall Effect with Two Distinct Plateaus

The recent discovery of the 3D quantum Hall effect in $\mathrm{HfTe_5}$ has also revealed puzzling signatures of possible 3D fractionalization. Beyond the first plateau associated with the lowest Landau band, Hall conductivity exhibits a second plateau with a value of about $3/5$ of the first, accompanied by a suppressed longitudinal resistivity. Here, we attribute this second plateau to an insulating ground state arising from spin-density-wave order. We show that a magnetic-field-driven Lifshitz transition causes the spin-down holelike zeroth Landau band to cross the Fermi energy and that the resulting nesting between the lowest spin-up and spin-down Landau bands induces a spin-density wave. We calculate the Hall and longitudinal resistivity and reproduce the experimental behaviors. Our renormalization-group analysis further supports this insulating ground state. Our work reveals that the tunability of Landau bands along the magnetic-field direction endows the 3D quantum Hall effect with a broader phenomenology than its 2D counterpart and merits further exploration.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2025

Linear magnetoresistance of two-dimensional massless Dirac fermions in the quantum limit

Linear magnetoresistance is a hallmark of 3D Weyl metals in the quantum limit. Recently, a pronounced linear magnetoresistance has also been observed in 2D graphene [Xin et al., Nature 616, 270 (2023)]. However, a comprehensive theoretical understanding remains elusive. By employing the self-consistent Born approximation, we derive the analytical expressions for the magnetoresistivity of 2D massless Dirac fermions in the quantum limit. Notably, our result recovers the minimum conductivity in the clean limit and reveals a linear dependence of resistivity on the magnetic field for Gaussian impurity potentials, in quantitative agreement with experiments. These findings shed light on the magnetoresistance behavior of 2D Dirac fermions under ultra-high magnetic fields.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2025

Emergence of Nodal-Knot Transitions by Disorder

Under certain symmetries, degenerate points in three-dimensional metals form one-dimensional nodal lines. These nodal lines sometimes exhibit intricate knotted structures and have been studied in various contexts. As one of the most common physical perturbations, disorder effects often trigger novel quantum phase transitions. For nodal-knot phases, whether disorder can drive knot transitions remains an open and intriguing question. Employing renormalization-group calculations, we demonstrate that nodal-knot transitions emerge in the presence of weak disorder. Specifically, both chemical-potential-type and magnetic-type disorders can induce knot transitions, resulting in the emergence of distinct knot topologies. The transition can be quantitatively characterized by changes in topological invariants such as the knot Wilson loop integrals. Our findings open up a new avenue for manipulating the topology of nodal-knot phases through disorder effects.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

Nernst Plateau in the Quantum Limit of Low-Carrier-Density Topological Insulators

Nernst effect, a transverse electric current induced by a temperature gradient, is a promising tool for revealing emergent phases of condensed matter. We find a Nernst coefficient plateau in low carrier density topological insulators, as a signature of 1D Weyl points in the quantum limit of the weak topological insulator. The plateau height is inversely proportional to the impurity density, suggesting a way to engineer infinitely large Nernst effects. The Nernst plateau also exists in strong topological insulators, at the bottom of the lowest Landau band. We show that these plateaus have been overlooked in the previous experiments and we highlight the experimental conditions to observe them. Our results may inspire more investigations of employing anomalous Nernst effect to identify emergent phases of condensed matter.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2023

Reply to Comment on Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 176601 (2021) by Lee and Yang

In this Reply, we respond to the comments in Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 219702 (2023) on our Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 176601 (2021) ''Coulomb instabilities of a three-Dimensional higher-order topological insulator". We show the surface gap given in Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 219701 (2023) is different from the expression derived by using the well-accepted approach and becomes divergent and singular at lower energies, thus is not suitable for depicting the phase transition from the 2nd-order to 1st-order topological insulator. We further show that a correct surface gap can describe the phase transition if the RG scheme treats the bulk gap as starting point. We justify our criteria in Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 176601 (2021) for both the transitions from 2nd-order topological insulator to 1st-order topological insulator and normal insulator.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2022

Emergent space-time supersymmetry at disorder quantum critical point

We study the effect of disorder on the spacetime supersymmetry that is proposed to emerge at the quantum critical point of pair density wave transition in (2+1)D Dirac semimetals and (3+1)D Weyl semimetals. In the (2+1)D Dirac semimetal, we consider three types of disorder, including random scalar potential, random vector potential and random mass potential, while the random mass disorder is absent in the (3+1)D Weyl semimetal. Via a systematic renormalization group analysis, we find that any type of weak random disorder is irrelevant due to the couplings between the disorder potential and the Yukawa vertex. The emergent supersymmetry is thus stable for weak random potentials. Our work will pave the way for exploration supersymmetry in realistic condensed matter systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Theory for magnetic-field-driven 3D metal-insulator transitions in the quantum limit

Metal-insulator transitions driven by magnetic fields have been extensively studied in 2D, but a 3D theory is still lacking. Motivated by recent experiments, we develop a scaling theory for the metal-insulator transitions in the strong-magnetic-field quantum limit of a 3D system. By using a renormalization-group calculation to treat electron-electron interactions, electron-phonon interactions, and disorder on the same footing, we obtain the critical exponent that characterizes the scaling relations of the resistivity to temperature and magnetic field. By comparing the critical exponent with those in a recent experiment [F. Tang et al., Nature (London) 569, 537 (2019)], we conclude that the insulating ground state was not only a charge-density wave driven by electron-phonon interactions but also coexisting with strong electron-electron interactions and backscattering disorder. We also propose a current-scaling experiment for further verification. Our theory will be helpful for exploring the emergent territory of 3D metal-insulator transitions under strong magnetic fields.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Coulomb instabilities of 3D higher-order topological insulators

Topological insulator (TI) is an exciting discovery because of its robustness against disorder and interactions. Recently, higher-order TIs have been attracting increasing attention, because they host 1D topologically-protected hinge states in 3D or 0D corner states in 2D. A significantly critical issue is whether the higher-order TIs also survive interactions, but it is still unexplored. We study the effects of weak Coulomb interaction on a 3D second-order TI, with the help of a renormalization group calculation. We find that the 3D higher-order TIs are always unstable, suffering from two types of topological phase transitions. One is from higher-order TI to TI, the other is to normal insulator (NI). The first type is accompanied by emergent time-reversal and inversion symmetries and has a dynamical critical exponent $κ=1$. The second type does not have the emergent symmetries and has non-universal dynamical critical exponents $κ<1$. Our results may inspire more inspections on the stability of higher-order topological states of matter and related novel quantum criticalities.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Large-momentun tail of one-dimensional Fermi gases with spin-orbit coupling

We study the contacts, large-momentum tail, radio-frequency spectroscopy, and some other universal relations for an ultracold one-dimensional (1D) two-component Fermi gas with spin-orbit coupling (SOC). Different from previous studies, we find that the $q^{-8}$ tail in the spin-mixing (off-diagonal) terms of the momentum distribution matrix is dependent on the two SOC parameters in the laboratory frame for 1D systems, where $q$ is the relative momentum. This tail can be observed through time-of-flight measurement as a direct manifestation of the SOC effects on the many-body level. Besides the traditional 1D even-wave scattering length, we find that two new physical quantities must be introduced due to the SOC. Consequently, two new adiabatic energy relations with respect to the two SOC parameters are obtained. Furthermore, we derive the pressure relation and virial theorem at short distances for this system. To find how the SOC modifies the large-momentum behavior, we take the SOC parameters as perturbations since the strength of the SOC should be much smaller than the corresponding strength scale of the interatomic interactions. In addition, by using the operator product expansion method, we derive the asymptotic behavior of the large-momentum distribution matrix up to the $q^{-8}$ order and find that the diagonal terms of the distribution matrix include the contact of traditional 1D even-wave scattering length as the leading term and the SOC modified terms beyond the leading term, the off-diagonal term is beyond the subleading term and is corrected by the SOC parameters. We also find that the momentum distribution matrix shows spin-dependent and anisotropic features. Furthermore, we calculate the momentum distribution matrix in the laboratory frame for the experimental implication.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2019

Interplay between tilt, disorder, and Coulomb interaction in type-I Dirac fermions

We investigate the mutual influence of tilt, disorder, and Coulomb interaction in a type-I Dirac semimetal (DSM) with $x$-direction tilt by performing a renormalization group analysis. The interplay between disorder and ordinary tilt generates an effective tilt along the $x$-direction, which is the physically observable one. There exist two types of disorder which increase the effective tilt and drive a phase transition from the DSM phase to the diffusive metal phase. The diffusive phase transition stops the increase of the effective tilt and the surface of the original Dirac cone in the diffusive metal phase is just slightly tilted. Surprisingly, the Dirac point is replaced by a bulk nodal arc in the diffusive metal phase. The Coulomb interaction suppresses the diffusive phase transition and therefore is harmful to the formation of bulk nodal arc. In contrast, there also exists other two types of disorder which reduce the effective tilt and induce no phase transition. For these two types of disorder, the Coulomb interaction enhances their low-energy relevances. Coexistence of Coulomb interaction with any of them leads to a stable infrared fixed point where the coupling strengths for two kinds of interaction are identical and the effective tilt vanishes. The original tilted Dirac semimetal now reacts like an untilted and interaction-free Dirac semimetal. Our results show that interplay between tilt, disorder, and Coulomb interaction results in rich low-energy properties for the tilted Dirac fermions.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Absence of emergent supersymmetry at superconducting quantum critical points in Dirac and Weyl semimetals

Supersymmetry plays a crucial role in superstring theory and high-energy physics, but has never been observed in experiments. Recently, an effective space-time supersymmetry was argued to emerge in the low-energy region by tuning Dirac or Weyl semimetal to approach a superconducting quantum critical point, at which the Dirac or Weyl fermion and the bosonic order parameter are both massless. Here, we study under what circumstances can space-time supersymmetry be realized at a quantum critical point. We demonstrate that the Yukawa-type coupling between the massless fermion and massless boson can dynamically generate an infinite number of non-supersymmetric terms in the effective field theory of the boson. Owing to these terms, no space-time supersymmetry emerges at the superconducting quantum critical points. The results provide important constraint on the exploration of emergent space-time supersymmetry in condensed matter systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

Condition for the emergence of a bulk Fermi arc in disordered Dirac-fermion systems

We present a renormalization group analysis of the disorder effects on the low-energy behaviors of twodimensional tilted Dirac-fermion systems, in which the fermions have two distinct orbitals unrelated by any symmetry. Four types of disordered potential, two interorbital and two intraorbital, are considered. If there is only one type of interorbital disorder, the fermion-disorder scattering induces logarithmic or power-law corrections to the fermion density of states and specific heat. In contrast, the intraorbital disorder can turn the system into a strongly disordered phase. In this disordered phase, calculations based on self-consistent Born approximation reveal that the Dirac point is destroyed and replaced by a bulk Fermi arc. We also study the interplay of four types of disorder, and find that the Dirac point can either remain intact or give place to a Fermi arc. We obtain the condition for the emergence of a Fermi arc in this case. Our results indicate that disorders can result in rich low-energy properties of tilted Dirac fermions.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2017

Effects of random potentials in three-dimensional quantum electrodynamics

Three-dimensional quantum electrodynamics exhibits a number of interesting properties, such as dynamical chiral symmetry breaking, weak confinement, and non-Fermi liquid behavior, and also has wide applications in condensed matter physics. We study the effects of random potentials, which exist in almost all realistic condensed-matter systems, on the low-energy behaviors of massless Dirac fermions by means of renormalization group method, and show that the role of random mass is significantly enhanced by the gauge interaction, whereas random scalar and vector potentials are insusceptible to the gauge interaction at the one-loop order. The static random potential breaks the Lorentz invariance, and as such induces unusual renormalization of fermion velocity. We then consider the case in which three types of random potentials coexist in the system. The random scalar potential is found to play a dominant role in the low-energy region, and drives the system to undergo a quantum phase transition.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Superconductivity in two-dimensional disordered Dirac semimetals

In two-dimensional Dirac semimetals, Cooper pairing instability occurs only when the attractive interaction strength $|u|$ is larger than some critical value $|u_{c}|$ because the density of states vanishes at Dirac points. Disorders enhance the low-energy density of states but meanwhile shorten the lifetime of fermions, which tend to promote and suppress superconductivity, respectively. To determine which of the two competing effects wins, we study the interplay of Cooper pairing interaction and disorder scattering by means of renormalization group method. We consider three types of disorders, including random mass, random gauge potential, and random chemical potential, and show that the first two suppress superconductivity. In particular, the critical BCS coupling $|u_{c}|$ is increased to certain larger value if the system contains only random mass or random gauge potential, which makes the onset of superconductivity more difficult. In the case of random chemical potential, the effective disorder parameter flows to the strong coupling regime, where the perturbation expansion breaks down and cannot provide a clear answer concerning the fate of superconductivity. When different types of disorder coexist in one system, their strength parameters all flow to strong couplings. In the strong coupling regime, the perturbative renormalization group method becomes invalid, and one needs to employ other methods to treat the disorder effects. We perform a simple gap equation analysis of the impact of random chemical potential on superconductivity by using the Abrikosov-Gorkov diagrammatic approach, and also briefly discuss the possible generalization of this approach.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2016

Interplay of Coulomb interaction and disorder in a two-dimensional semi-Dirac fermion system

It was recently found that Coulomb interaction can induce a series of nontrivial spectral and transport properties in a two-dimensional anisotropic Weyl semimetal. Different from graphehe that is basically an ordinary Fermi liquid, the Coulomb interaction in this system makes the Fermi liquid description invalid over a wide range of energy scales. We present a systematic renormalization group analysis of the interplay of Coulomb interaction and quenched disorder, and show that they have substantial mutual effects on each other, which then leads to a variety of quantum phase transitions and non-Fermi liquid behaviors. The low-energy physics of the system depends sensitively on the effective strength of Coulomb interaction and disorder.

cond-mat.str-el↗