Dynamical transport measurement of the Luttinger parameter in helical edges states of 2D topological insulators

One-dimensional (1D) electron systems in the presence of Coulomb interaction are described by Luttinger liquid theory. The strength of Coulomb interaction in the Luttinger liquid, as parameterized by the Luttinger parameter K, is in general difficult to measure. This is because K is usually hidden in powerlaw dependencies of observables as a function of temperature or applied bias. We propose a dynamical way to measure K on the basis of an electronic time-of-flight experiment. We argue that the helical Luttinger liquid at the edge of a 2D topological insulator constitutes a preeminently suited realization of a 1D system to test our proposal. This is based on the robustness of helical liquids against elastic backscattering in the presence of time reversal symmetry.