title: Helical Luttinger liquid in topological insulator nanowires.
abstract: We derive and analyze the effective low-energy theory for interacting electrons in a cylindrical nanowire made of a strong topological insulator. Three different approaches provide a consistent picture for the band structure, where surface states forming inside the bulk gap correspond to one-dimensional bands indexed by total angular momentum. When a half-integer magnetic flux pierces the nanowire, we find a strongly correlated helical Luttinger liquid topologically protected against weak disorder. We describe how transport experiments can detect this state.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Theoretische Physik, Heinrich-Heine-Universität, D-40225 Düsseldorf, Germany.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Egger
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zazunov
authors.forename: A Levy
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Yeyati