Symmetries and weak (anti)localization of Dirac fermions in HgTe quantum wells

P. M. Ostrovsky, I. V. Gornyi, A. D. Mirlin

Published 2012-07-17Version 1

We perform a symmetry analysis of a 2D electron system in HgTe/HgCdTe quantum wells in the situation when the chemical potential is outside of the gap, so that the bulk of the quantum well is conducting. In order to investigate quantum transport properties of the system, we explore symmetries of the low-energy Hamiltonian which is expressed in terms of two flavors of Dirac fermions, and physically important symmetry-breaking mechanisms. This allows us to predict emerging patterns of symmetry breaking that control the weak localization and antilocalization showing up in transverse-field magnetoresistance.