Band spectrum is D-brane

Abstract

We show that band spectrum of topological insulators can be identified as the shape of D-branes in string theory. The identification is based on a relation between the Berry connection associated with the band structure and the ADHM/Nahm construction of solitons whose geometric realization is available with D-branes. We also show that chiral and helical edge states are identified as D-branes representing a noncommutative monopole.

1+32 pages; 7 figures