Quantum impurity on the surface of a topological insulator

Abstract

It is shown that the Hamiltonian for a quantum magnetic impurity on the surface of a topological insulator can be mapped to the conventional pseudo-gap Anderson impurity model, albeit with the combinations of continuum states which hybridize with the impurity having more complex structure in the reciprocal and spin space. If the Fermi level is away from the Dirac point, the impurity is predicted to be fully screened at low enough temperatures, i.e., there are no residual degrees of freedom.