I will discuss two case studies of characteristic excitation continua related to scattering spectroscopies of topological materials. First, I will talk about the electron-hole continuum in topological nodal-point semimetals. Specifically, I will show how spectral patterns of resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) can reveal the presence of nodal points in the band structure. I will elucidate this by presenting a calculation of the RIXS spectrum for a nodal point observed in transition-metal monosilicides, using the band structure determined by density-functional theory. Second, I will describe the continuum of Majorana-pair excitations, as revealed in the RIXS and Raman spectra of the Kitaev honeycomb model, and will comment on the effects of temperature and deviation from the exactly solvable point.

link to talk: https://play.library.utoronto.ca/a07dd14ce9d8099c60ab2192533f2e44