Axion Instability and Nonlinear Electromagnetic Effect

Abstract

We investigate the instability due to dynamical axion field near the topological phase transition of insulators. We first point out that the amplitude of dynamical axion field is bounded for magnetic insulators in general, which suppresses the axion instability. Near the topological phase transition, however, the axion field may have a large fluctuation, which decreases the critical electric field for the instability and increases the axion induced magnetic flux density. Using two different model Hamiltonians, we report the electromagnetic response of the axion field in details.