Incoherent topological insulator close to the Mott transition in honeycomb materials.*

Motivated by the anomalous metallic properties observed in many strongly 

correlated systems we explore the effect of spin-orbit coupling 

on the finite temperature Mott transition in honeycomb compounds. The 

poorly understood properties of a strongly correlated topological insulator

at finite temperature are unveiled based on the slave-rotor solution to the Kane-Mele-Hubbard model. 

At strong Coulomb repulsion, a topological Mott insulator sustaining edge states which carry 

spin but no charge emerges as previously predicted. Approaching the Mott transition we find a 

novel intermediate phase arises at finite temperatures which we identify as an 

incoherent topological insulator (ITI). Unlike the non-interacting topological 

band structure of the topological insulator,  the ITI has a topological 

gap separating incoherent Hubbard bands i. e. with no quasiparticles.

Relevance of our results to honeycomb layered compounds is discussed.