  A fascinating type of symmetry-protected topological states of matter are
topological Kondo insulators, where insulating behavior arises from Kondo
screening of localized moments via conduction electrons, and non-trivial
topology emerges from the structure of the hybridization between the
local-moment and conduction bands. Here we study the physics of Kondo holes,
i.e., missing local moments, in three-dimensional topological Kondo insulators,
using a self-consistent real-space mean-field theory. Such Kondo holes quite
generically induce in-gap states which, for Kondo holes at or near the surface,
hybridize with the topological surface state. In particular, we study the
surface-state quasiparticle interference (QPI) induced by a dilute
concentration of surface Kondo holes and compare this to QPI from conventional
potential scatterers. We treat both strong and weak topological-insulator
phases and, for the latter, specifically discuss the contributions to QPI from
inter-Dirac-cone scattering.
