Kondo lattice on the edge of a two-dimensional topological insulator

We revisit the problem of a single quantum impurity on the edge of a two-dimensional time-reversal invariant topological insulator and show that the zero-temperature phase diagram contains a large local moment region for antiferromagnetic Kondo coupling, which was missed by previous poor man's scaling treatments. The combination of an exact solution at the so-called decoupling point and a renormalization group analysis a la Anderson-Yuval-Hamann allows us to access the regime of strong electron-electron interactions on the edge and strong Kondo coupling. We apply similar methods to the problem of a regular one-dimensional array of quantum impurities interacting with the edge liquid. When the edge electrons are at half-filling with respect to the impurity lattice, the system remains gapless unless the Luttinger parameter of the edge is less than 1/2 in which case two-particle backscattering effects drive the system to a gapped phase with long-range Ising antiferromagnetic order. This is in marked contrast with the gapped disordered ground state of the ordinary half-filled one-dimensional Kondo lattice.