Hidden quasi-symmetries stabilize non-trivial quantum oscillations in CoSi

ORAL

Abstract

Unlocking the exotic properties promised to occur in topologically non-trivial semi-metals requires significant fine-tuning. The scarcity of materials in which the topological anomalies occur at the chemical potential is a major obstacle towards their applications.

Here we show how quasi-symmetries stabilize near-degeneracies of bands over extended region in the Brillouin zone. Specifically, a quasi-symmetry is an exact symmetry of a lower-order Hamiltonian yet broken by higher-order terms. Hence quasi-symmetric points are gapped with a parametrically small gap which does not influence the physical properties of the system.

We demonstrate that in the eV-bandwidth semi-metal CoSi an internal quasi-symmetry stabilizes gaps below 2 meV over eight large near-degenerate planes (2D) [1]. This quasi-symmetry is key to explaining the surprising simplicity of the experimentally observed quantum spectrum. Untethered from the limitations of crystalline symmetry, quasi-symmetries eliminate the need for fine-tuning as the sources of large Berry curvature are pinned at the chemical potential, and thereby lead to new Wigner-Von Neumann classifications of solids. These results demonstrate a hidden classification framework for symmetry groups and materials in which quasi-symmetries are critical to understand the low-energy physics.

*This work was funded by Swiss National Science Foundation.

Publication: [1] C. Y. Guo et al., arXiv:2108.02279v2 (2021).

Presenters

  • Chunyu Guo

    • Laboratory of Quantum Materials (QMAT), Institute of Materials (IMX), Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL)

Authors

  • Chunyu Guo

    • Laboratory of Quantum Materials (QMAT), Institute of Materials (IMX), Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL)
  • Lunhui Hu

    • The Pennsylvania State University
    • Pennsylvania State University
    • University of California, San Diego
    • Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University
  • Carsten Putzke

    • Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
    • Laboratory of Quantum Materials (QMAT), Institute of Materials (IMX), Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL)
  • Jonas Diaz

    • Laboratory of Quantum Materials (QMAT), Institute of Materials (IMX), Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL)
  • Xiangwei Huang

    • Laboratory of Quantum Materials (QMAT), Institute of Materials (IMX), Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL)
  • Kaustuv Manna

    • Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids
  • Feng-Ren Fan

    • Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids
  • Chandra Shekhar

    • Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids
  • Yan Sun

    • Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids
  • Claudia Felser

    • Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physic
    • Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Dresden, Germany
    • Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids
  • Chaoxing Liu

    • Pennsylvania State University
    • Department of physics, Pennsylvania State University
  • Andrei B Bernevig

    • Princeton University
  • Philip J Moll

    • Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
    • Laboratory of Quantum Materials (QMAT), Institute of Materials (IMX), Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne