Quantum Hall and Light Responses in a 2D Topological Semimetal

We have recently identified a protected topological semimetal in graphene which presents a zero-energy edge mode robust to disorder and interactions. Here, we address the characteristics of this semimetal and show that the $\mathbb{Z}$ topological invariant of the Hall conductivity associated to the lowest energy band can be equivalently measured from the resonant response to circularly polarized light resolved at the Dirac points. The (non-quantized) conductivity responses of the intermediate energy bands, including the Fermi surface, also give rise to a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ invariant. We emphasize on the bulk-edge correspondence as a protected topological half metal, i.e. one spin-population polarized in the plane is in the insulating phase related to the robust edge mode while the other is in the metallic regime. The quantized transport at the edges is equivalent to a $\frac{1}{2}-\frac{1}{2}$ conductance for spin polarizations along $z$ direction. We also build a parallel between the topological Hall response and a pair of half numbers (half Skyrmions) through the light response locally resolved in momentum space and on the sphere.
Comment: 18 pages, 2 Figures, Final Version Accepted for Publication at Comptes Rendus de Physique, Academie des Sciences