Topological insulators in three dimensions from spontaneous symmetry breaking

Yi Zhang, Ying Ran, Ashvin Vishwanath

Published 2009-04-04, updated 2009-04-20Version 2

We study three dimensional systems where strong repulsion leads to an insulating state via spontaneously generated spin-orbit interactions. We discuss a microscopic model where the resulting state is topological. Such topological `Mott' insulators differ from their band insulator counterparts in that they possess an additional order parameter, a rotation matrix, that describes the spontaneous breaking of spin-rotation symmetry. We show that line defects of this order are associated with protected one dimensional modes in the {\em strong} topological Mott insulator, which provides a bulk characterization of this phase.