Contributor info: Dr Fernando Dominguez

Fernando Dominguez, Benedikt Scharf, Ewelina M. Hankiewicz

SciPost Phys. Core 5, 024 (2022) · published 28 April 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

We investigate an unconventional topological phase transition that occurs in quantum spin Hall (QSH) systems when applying an external in-plane magnetic field. We show that this transition between QSH and trivial insulator phases is separated by a stable topological gapless phase, which is protected by the combination of particle-hole and reflection symmetries, and thus, we dub it as crystalline Weyl semimetal. We explore the stability of this new phase when particle-hole symmetry breaking terms are present. Especially, we predict a robust unconventional topological phase transition to be visible for materials described by Kane and Mele model even if particle-hole symmetry is significantly broken.