quantum mechanics - Book recommendations - Topological Insulators for dummies

Is there a pedagogical explanation of what is a topological insulator for those that do not even know what the Berry phase is but have a basic understanding of quantum mechanics and solid state physics?

Answer

I think the clear answer is A Short Course on Topological Insulators. There's both a textbook and an arXiv version. I think it's notable for assuming the absolute minimum knowledge and building up from there. It teaches the adiabatic theorem, Berry phase, Chern number, etc all from scratch. It is also notable in being the only textbook on the subject I've seen that doesn't use the second-quantization formalism. The only background necessary is that you understand quantum mechanics, and have seen tight-binding models before.