Dresden 2026 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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TT: Fachverband Tiefe Temperaturen

TT 55: Topology and symmetry protected materials & Topological insulators (joint session O/HL/TT)

TT 55.3: Vortrag

Mittwoch, 11. März 2026, 15:30–15:45, HSZ/0401

Probing chiral symmetry with a topological domain wall sensor — •Artem Odobesko¹, Glenn Wagner², Titus Neupert², Ronny Thomale¹, and Matthias Bode¹ — ¹Physikalisches Institut, Universität Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany — ²Department of Physics, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland

Chiral symmetry is a fundamental property with profound implications for the properties of elementary particles, that implies a spectral symmetry (i.e. E -> -E) in their dispersion relation. In condensed matter physics, chiral symmetry is frequently associated with superconductors or materials hosting Dirac fermions such as graphene or topological insulators. There, chiral symmetry is an emergent low-energy property, accompanied by an emergent spectral symmetry. While the chiral symmetry can be broken by crystal distortion or external perturbations, the spectral symmetry frequently survives. As the presence of spectral symmetry does not necessarily imply chiral symmetry, the question arises how these two properties can be experimentally differentiated. Here, we demonstrate how a system with preserved spectral symmetry can reveal underlying broken chiral symmetry using topological defects. Our study shows that these defects induce a spectral imbalance in the Landau level spectrum, providing direct evidence of symmetry alteration at topological domain walls. Using high-resolution STM/STS we demonstrate the intricate interplay between chiral and translational symmetry which is broken at step edges in topological crystalline insulator Pb_1−xSn_xSe.
[1] G. Wagner et al., Newton 1, 100009 (2025)

Keywords: Chiral symmetry; Landau Levels; Topological Crystalline Insulator