Winding charge density wave: Intertwining of structural chirality and phase topology of electronic order
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: We propose a class of chiral charge density waves (CDWs), dubbed winding CDWs, that exhibit macroscopic chirality despite a single ordering wavevector. In screw-symmetric chiral crystals, chiral phonons drive a Peierls instability that selects a definite crystal angular momentum channel, thereby endowing the CDW with an integer azimuthal phase winding dictated by the selection rule governing electron-phonon coupling. We further extend this framework to achiral crystals with discrete rotational symmetry and demonstrate that spontaneous symmetry breaking stabilizes a winding CDW with either handedness, realizing an achiral-to-chiral phase transition. Our results reveal a fundamental link between the geometry of chiral structures and the phase topology of electronic orders.
Source: Physical Review Letters
DOI: 10.1103/1r92-yzsm
Authors: Shun Asano, Youichi Yanase
Language: English
Subfield: Condensed Matter Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: Quest of topological supreconducting state and concomitant Majorana excitation state using electrical spin detection procedure, 次元性、対称性、トポロジーによるエキゾチック超伝導の解明と新機能性開拓, 量子幾何が誘起する量子凝縮相の解明, Developing new materials and properties through the fusion of superconductivity and magnetism, 量子幾何を活用した強相関電子系科学の開拓, G769438920, Physics of strongly-correlated topological spin-triplet superconductivity with uranium atom
OpenAlex ID: W7167628133