American Physical Society, Physical Review Letters, 13(105), 2010
DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.105.136403
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We derive and analyze the effective low-energy theory for interacting electrons in a cylindrical nanowire made of a strong topological insulator. Three different approaches provide a consistent picture for the band structure, where surface states forming inside the bulk gap correspond to one-dimensional bands indexed by total angular momentum. When a half-integer magnetic flux pierces the nanowire, we find a strongly correlated helical Luttinger liquid topologically protected against weak disorder. We describe how transport experiments can detect this state. ; Comment: 4+ pages, 3 figures