Cubic Topological Kondo Insulators

Understand

Current theories of Kondo insulators employ the interaction of conduction electrons with localized Kramers doublets originating from a tetragonal crystalline environment, yet all Kondo insulators are cubic.

• Here we develop a theory of cubic topological Kondo insulators involving the interaction of spin quartets with a conduction sea.
• The spin quartets greatly increase the potential for strong topological insulators, entirely eliminating the weak-topological phases from the diagram.
• We show that the relevant topological behavior in cubic Kondo insulators can only reside at the lower symmetry X or M points in the Brillouin zone, leading to a three Dirac cones with heavy quasiparticles.