Oblique confinement states are superinsulators, not topological insulators

Abstract

We show that the oblique confinement states in the Cardy-Rabinovici model are superinsulators, not topological insulators. This is because their only bulk excitations are strings that completely prevent the separation of charge-anticharge pairs, causing a strictly infinite resistance (below a critical temperature and/or voltage). This is very different from the typical activated behaviour of topological insulators, caused by a finite bulk energy gap.