Three-Band Model for Quantum Hall and Spin Hall Effects

Abstract

Topological properties of a certain class of spinless three-band Hamiltonians are shown to be summed up by the Skyrmion number in momentum space, analogous to the case of two-band Hamiltonian. Topological tight-binding Hamiltonian on a Kagome lattice is analyzed with this view. When such a Hamiltonian is "folded", the two bands with opposite Chern numbers merge into a degenerate band exhibiting non-Abelian gauge connection. Conserved pseudo-spin current operator can be constructed in this case and used to compute the pseudo-spin Hall conductance. Our model Hamiltonians belong to the symmetry class D and AI according to the ten-fold classification scheme.