  The de Haas-van Alphen effect (dHvAe), describing oscillations of the
magnetization as a function of magnetic field, is commonly assumed to be a
definite sign for the presence of a Fermi surface (FS). Indeed, the effect
forms the basis of a well-established experimental procedure for accurately
measuring FS topology and geometry of metallic systems, with parameters
commonly extracted by fitting to the Lifshitz-Kosevich (LK) theory based on
Fermi liquid theory. Here we show that, in contrast to this canonical
situation, there can be quantum oscillations even for band insulators of
certain types. We provide simple analytic formulas describing the temperature
dependence of the quantum oscillations in this setting, showing strong
deviations from LK theory. We draw connections to recent experiments and
discuss how our results can be used in future experiments to accurately
determine e.g. hybridization gaps in heavy fermion systems.
