  A line defect on a metallic surface induces standing waves in the electronic
local density of states (LDOS). Asymptotically far from the defect, the wave
number of the LDOS oscillations at the Fermi energy is usually equal to the
distance between nesting segments of the Fermi contour, and the envelope of the
LDOS oscillations shows a power-law decay as moving away from the line defect.
Here, we theoretically analyze the LDOS oscillations close to a line defect on
the surface of the topological insulator Bi2Te3, and identify an important
pre-asymptotic contribution with wave number and decay characteristics markedly
different from the asymptotic contributions. Wave numbers characterizing the
pre-asymptotic LDOS oscillations are in good agreement with recent data from
scanning tunneling microscopy experiments [Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 016401
(2010)].
