Magnetic-field-induced corner states in quantum spin Hall insulators
Abstract
We address the problem of magnetic-field-induced corner states in quantum spin Hall insulators (QSHIs) beyond the particle-hole-symmetric limit. Starting from a realistic low-energy model for zinc-blende semiconductor quantum wells (QWs), we derive the effective edge Hamiltonian in the form of a Dirac Hamiltonian with two magnetic-field-dependent mass terms, whose structure depends on the crystallographic orientation of the edge and of the magnetic-field orientation. Our analytical results show that magnetic-field-induced corner states are most naturally understood as in-gap bound states of the effective edge theory, controlled by the relative configuration of the edge mass vectors rather than, in general, as higher-order topological corner modes protected by a stable bulk invariant. We demonstrate that, although mirror-graded winding numbers can be defined and quantized for certain crystallographic configurations, the existence of magnetic-field-induced corner states is not restricted to regimes in which these bulk invariants are well defined. Finally, we argue that even without higher-order topological protection these corner states may remain spectrally robust under weak perturbations as isolated in-gap quasiparticle excitations.
Related
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- Interaction-induced sign reversal of the orbital magnetic susceptibility in Chern insulators
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BibTeX
@article{krishtopenko2026magneticfieldinduced,
title = {{Magnetic-field-induced corner states in quantum spin Hall insulators}},
author = {Sergey Krishtopenko and Frédéric Teppe},
journal = {Physical Review B},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1103/g1cd-9sb5},
eprint = {2303.09260},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05734477v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Magnetic-field-induced corner states in quantum spin Hall insulators
AU - Sergey Krishtopenko
AU - Frédéric Teppe
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
JO - Physical Review B
DO - 10.1103/g1cd-9sb5
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05734477v1
AB - We address the problem of magnetic-field-induced corner states in quantum spin Hall insulators (QSHIs) beyond the particle-hole-symmetric limit. Starting from a realistic low-energy model for zinc-blende semiconductor quantum wells (QWs), we derive the effective edge Hamiltonian in the form of a Dirac Hamiltonian with two magnetic-field-dependent mass terms, whose structure depends on the crystallographic orientation of the edge and of the magnetic-field orientation. Our analytical results show that magnetic-field-induced corner states are most naturally understood as in-gap bound states of the effective edge theory, controlled by the relative configuration of the edge mass vectors rather than, in general, as higher-order topological corner modes protected by a stable bulk invariant. We demonstrate that, although mirror-graded winding numbers can be defined and quantized for certain crystallographic configurations, the existence of magnetic-field-induced corner states is not restricted to regimes in which these bulk invariants are well defined. Finally, we argue that even without higher-order topological protection these corner states may remain spectrally robust under weak perturbations as isolated in-gap quasiparticle excitations.
SN - 2469-9950
SN - 2469-9969
ER -