  The past decade's apparent success in predicting and experimentally
discovering distinct classes of topological insulators (TIs) and semimetals
masks a fundamental shortcoming: out of 200,000 stoichiometric compounds extant
in material databases, only several hundred of them are topologically
nontrivial. Are TIs that esoteric, or does this reflect a fundamental problem
with the current piecemeal approach to finding them? To address this, we
propose a new and complete electronic band theory that highlights the link
between topology and local chemical bonding, and combines this with the
conventional band theory of electrons. Topological Quantum Chemistry is a
description of the universal global properties of all possible band structures
and materials, comprised of a graph theoretical description of momentum space
and a dual group theoretical description in real space. We classify the
possible band structures for all 230 crystal symmetry groups that arise from
local atomic orbitals, and show which are topologically nontrivial. We show how
our topological band theory sheds new light on known TIs, and demonstrate the
power of our method to predict a plethora of new TIs.
