Universal quantization of the magnetic susceptibility jump at a topological phase transition

Abstract

We examine the magnetic susceptibility of topological insulators microscopically and find that the orbital-Zeeman (OZ) cross term, the cross term between the orbital effect and the spin Zeeman effect, is directly related to the Berry curvature when the z component of spin is conserved. In particular, the OZ cross term reflects the spin Chern number, which results in the quantization of the magnetic susceptibility jump at the topological phase transition. The magnitude of the jump is in units of the universal value 4|e|μB/h. We also apply the obtained formula to an explicit model and demonstrate the quantization. For this model, the physical origin of this quantization is clarified.