Chern insulators are periodic band insulators with the property that their projector onto the occupied bands have non-zero Chern number. Chern insulator with a homogeneous boundary display continuum spectrum that fills the entire insulating gap. The local density of states corresponding to this part of the spectrum is localized near the boundary, hence the terminology edge spectrum. An interesting question arises, namely, if a rough boundary, which can be seen as a strong random potential acting on these quasi 1-dimensional states, would destroy the continuum edge spectrum. This paper shows how such question can be answered via a newly formulated abstract framework in which the expectation value of the current of a general observable is connected to the index of a specific Fredholm operator. For the present application, we will connect the expectation value of the charge edge current with the index of a Fredholm operator that remains invariant under arbitrary deformations of the boundary.
Topological entanglement structure amongst disjoint torus boundaries of three manifolds have already been studied within the context of Chern-Simons theory. In this work, we study the topological entanglement due to interaction between the quasiparticles inside three-manifolds with one or more disjoint $S^2$ boundaries in SU($N$) Chern-Simons theory. We focus on the world-lines of quasiparticles (Wilson lines), carrying SU($N$) representations, creating four punctures on every $S^2$. We compute the entanglement entropy by partial tracing some of the boundaries. In fact, the entanglement entrop…
Transport characteristics of pure narrow 2D-conductors, in which the electron scattering is caused by rough side boundaries, have been studied. The conductance of such strips is highly sensitive to the intercorrelation properties of inhomogeneities of the opposite edges. The case with completely correlated statistically identical boundaries (CCB) is a peculiar one. Herein the electron scattering is uniquely due to fluctuations of the asperity slope and is not related to the strip width fluctuations. Owing to this, the electron relaxation lengths, specifically the localization length, depend qu…
Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies（都柏林高等研究院）；Trinity College Dublin（都柏林三一学院）；Università di Genova（热那亚大学）；Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare - Sezione di Genova（意大利国家核物理研究所-热那亚分部）
We establish the action of the three-dimensional non-Abelian bosonization dualities in the presence of a boundary, which supports a non-anomalous two-dimensional theory. In particular, we generalize a prescriptive method for assigning duality consistent boundary conditions used originally for Abelian dualities to dual non-Abelian Chern-Simons-matter theories with $SU$ and $U$ gauge groups and fundamental matter sectors. The cases of single species matter sectors and those with both scalars and fermions in the dual theories are considered. Generalization of our methods to $SO$ and $USp$ Chern-S…
The real space formalism of orbital magnetization (OM) is an average of the local OM over some appropriate region of the system. Previous studies prefer a bulk average (i.e., without including boundaries). Based on a bilayer model with an adjustable Chern number at half filling, we numerically investigate the effects from boundaries on the real space expressions of OM. The size convergence processes of its three constituent terms $M_{\mathrm{LC}}$, $M_{\mathrm{IC}}$, $M_{\mathrm{BC}}$ are analysed. The topological term $M_{\mathrm{BC}}$ makes a nonnegligible contribution from boundaries as a m…
We develop a perturbative approach that allows one to study the surface scattering in quasi-1D waveguides with rough boundaries. Our approach is based on the construction of an effective ``bulk'' potential of a very complicated structure. The detailed analysis of this potential reveals that apart from the well known terms considered in the previous studies, one should keep specific terms that depend on the square of the derivative of the boundaries. As was found, in spite of an apparent smallness of these square-gradient scattering (SGS) terms, there is a physically important region of paramet…
Here, we analyse two Dirac fermion species in two spatial dimensions in the presence of general quartic contact interactions. By employing functional bosonisation techniques, we demonstrate that depending on the couplings of the fermion interactions the system can be effectively described by a rich variety of topologically massive gauge theories. Among these effective theories, we obtain an extended Chern-Simons theory with higher order derivatives as well as two coupled Chern-Simons theories. Our formalism allows for a general description of interacting fermions emerging, for example, at the …
A diffraction problem for a flat Chern-Simons layer at plane boundary of a dielectric half space is solved. The Casimir energy of two dielectric half spaces with Chern-Simons layers at plane-parallel boundaries separated by a vacuum slit is derived. Crossing from the repulsive to the attractive Casimir force is analyzed for two Au and two Si half spaces with boundary Chern-Simons layers. Boundary quantum Hall layers in external magnetic field lead to Casimir repulsion at nanoscales. We discuss features that make systems with boundary quantum Hall layers unique for force measurements and search…
Mirror symmetric surfaces of a topological crystalline insulator host even number of Dirac surface states. A surface Zeeman field generically gaps these states leading to a quantized anomalous Hall effect. Varying the direction of Zeeman field induces transitions between different surface insulating states with any two Chern numbers between -4 and 4. In the crystal frame the phase boundaries occur for field orientations which are great circles with (111)-like normals on a sphere.
We use the Dirac cone model to explore the high Chern number (C) phases that are realized in the magnetic-doped topological insulator (TI) multilayer structures by Zhao et al. [Nature 588, 419 (2020)]. The Chern number is calculated by capturing the evolution of the phase boundaries with the parameters and then the Chern number phase diagrams of the TI multilayer structures are obtained. The high-C behavior is attributed to the band inversion of the renormalized Dirac cones, along with which the spin polarization at the Γpoint will get increased. Moreover, another two TI multilayer structures …
Bulk-edge correspondence is one of the most distinct properties of topological insulators. In particular, the 1D winding number $\n$ has a one-to-one correspondence to the number of edge states in a chain of topological insulators with boundaries. By properly choosing the unit cells, we carry out numerical calculation to show explicitly in the extended SSH model that the winding numbers corresponding to the left and right unit cells may be used to predict the numbers of edge states on the two boundaries in a finite chain. Moreover, by drawing analogy between the SSH model and QWZ model, we sho…
We investigate the algebraic structure of flat energy bands a partial filling of which may give rise to a fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect (or a fractional Chern insulator) and a fractional quantum spin Hall effect. Both effects arise in the case of a sufficiently flat energy band as well as a roughly flat and homogeneous Berry curvature, such that the global Chern number, which is a topological invariant, may be associated with a local non-commutative geometry. This geometry is similar to the more familiar situation of the fractional quantum Hall effect in two-dimensional electron sys…
In spite of their importance for understanding phonon transport phenomena in thin films and polycrystalline solids, the effects of boundary roughness scattering on phonon specularity and coherence are poorly understood because there is no general method for predicting their dependence on phonon momentum, frequency, branch and boundary morphology. Using the recently formulated atomistic S-matrix method, we develop a theory of boundary roughness scattering to determine the mode-resolved phonon coherence and specularity parameters from the scattering amplitudes. To illustrate the theory, we apply…
Galerkin Methods for Boltzmann-Poisson transport with reflection conditions on rough boundaries
TU Wien - Institute for Analysis and Scientific Computing（维也纳工业大学分析与科学计算研究所）；The University of Texas at Austin - Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences & Department of Mathematics（德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校计算工程与科学学院及数学系）
When time reversal symmetry is present there is a sharp distinction between topological and trivial band insulators which ensures that, as parameters are varied, these phases are separated by a phase transition at which the bulk gap closes. Surprisingly we find that even in the absence of time reversal symmetry, gapless regions originating from the phase boundaries persist. Moreover the critical line generically opens up to enclose Chern insulating phases that are thin but of finite extent in the phase diagram. We explain the topological origin of this effect in terms of quantized charge pumpi…
Realizing topological insulators is of great current interest because of their remarkable properties and possible future applications. There are recent proposals, based on Floquet analyses, that one can generate topologically nontrivial insulators by periodically driving topologically trivial ones. Here we address what happens if one follows the dynamics in such systems. Specifically, we present an exact study of the time evolution of a graphene-like system subjected to a circularly polarized electric field. We prove that, for infinite (translationally invariant) systems, the Chern number is c…
Topological insulators are new states of matter in which the topological phase originates from symmetry breaking. Recently, time-reversal invariant topological insulators were demonstrated for classical wave systems, such as acoustic systems, but limited by inter-pseudo-spin or inter-valley backscattering. This challenge can be effectively overcome via breaking the time-reversal symmetry. Here, we report the first experimental realization of acoustic topological insulators with nonzero Chern numbers, viz., acoustic Chern insulator (ACI), by introducing an angular-momentum-biased resonator arra…
Electrons in moiré flat band systems can spontaneously break time reversal symmetry, giving rise to a quantized anomalous Hall effect. Here we use a superconducting quantum interference device to image stray magnetic fields in one such system composed of twisted bilayer graphene aligned to hexagonal boron nitride. We find a magnetization of several Bohr magnetons per charge carrier, demonstrating that the magnetism is primarily orbital in nature. Our measurements reveal a large change in the magnetization as the chemical potential is swept across the quantum anomalous Hall gap consistent with …
Graphene can be turned into a semimetal with broken time-reversal symmetry by adding a valley-dependent pseudo-scalar potential that shifts the Dirac point energies in opposite directions, as in the modified Haldane model. We consider a bilayer obtained by stacking two time-reversed copies of the modified Haldane model, where conduction and valence bands cross to give rise to a nodal line in each valleys. In the AB stacking, the interlayer hopping lifts the degeneracy of the nodal lines and induces a band repulsion, leading surprisingly to a chiral insulator with a Chern number $C=\pm2$. As a …
Real topological phases featuring real Chern numbers and second-order boundary modes have been a focus of current research, but finding their material realization remains a challenge. Here, based on first-principles calculations and theoretical analysis, we reveal the already experimentally synthesized three-dimensional (3D) graphdiyne as the first realistic example of the recently proposed second-order real nodal-line semimetal. We show that the material hosts a pair of real nodal rings, each protected by two topological charges: a real Chern number and a 1D winding number. The two charges ge…
Lattice generalizations of fractional quantum Hall (FQH) systems, called fractional Chern insulators (FCIs), have been extensively investigated in strongly correlated systems. Despite many efforts, previous studies have not revealed all of the guiding principles for the FCI search. In this paper, we investigate a relationship between the topological band structure in the two-particle problem and the FCI ground states in the many-body problem. We first formulate the two-particle problem of a bosonic on-site interaction projected onto the lowest band of a given tight-binding Hamiltonian. We intr…
Typical persistent current ($I_{typ}$) in a mesoscopic normal metal ring with disorder due to rough edges and random grain boundaries is calculated by a scattering matrix method. In addition, resistance of a corresponding metallic wire is obtained from the Landauer formula and the electron mean free path ($l$) is determined. If disorder is due to the rough edges, a ballistic persistent current $I_{typ} \simeq e v_F/L$ is found to coexist with the diffusive resistance ($ \propto L/l$), where $v_F$ is the Fermi velocity and $L \gg l$ is the ring length. This ballistic current is due to a single …
The boundaries of waveguides and nanowires have drastic influence on their coherent scattering properties. Designing the boundary profile is thus a promising approach for transmission and band-gap engineering with many applications. By performing an experimental study of microwave transmission through rough waveguides we demonstrate that a recently proposed surface scattering theory can be employed to predict the measured transmission properties from the boundary profiles and vice versa. A new key ingredient of this theory is a scattering mechanism which depends on the squared gradient of the …
While the Bloch spectrum of translationally invariant noninteracting lattice models is trivially obtained by a Fourier transformation, diagonalizing the same problem in the presence of open boundary conditions is typically only possible numerically or in idealized limits. Here we present exact analytic solutions for the boundary states in a number of lattice models of current interest, including nodal-line semimetals on a hyperhoneycomb lattice, spin-orbit coupled graphene, and three-dimensional topological insulators on a diamond lattice, for which no previous exact finite-size solutions are …
We study the multi-boundary entanglement structure of the states prepared in (1+1) and (2+1) dimensional Chern-Simons theory with finite discrete gauge group $G$. The states in (1+1)-$d$ are associated with Riemann surfaces of genus $g$ with multiple $S^1$ boundaries and we use replica trick to compute the entanglement entropy for such states. In (2+1)-$d$, we focus on the states associated with torus link complements which live in the tensor product of Hilbert spaces associated with multiple $T^2$. We present a quantitative analysis of the entanglement structure for both abelian and non-abeli…
The relaxation of a classical spin, exchange coupled to the local magnetic moment at an edge site of the one-dimensional spinful Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model is studied numerically by solving the full set of equations of motion. A Lindblad coupling of a few sites at the opposite edge to an absorbing bath ensures that convergence with respect to the system size is achieved with only a moderate number of core sites. This allows us to numerically exactly study the long-time limit and to determine the parameter regimes where spin relaxation takes place. Corresponding dynamical phase diagrams for the…
Non-Hermitian Chern insulators differ from their Hermitian cousins in one key aspect: their edge spectra are incredibly rich and confounding. For example, even in the simple case where the bulk spectrum consists of two bands with Chern number $\pm 1$, the edge spectrum in the slab geometry may have one or two edge states on both edges, or only at one of the edges, depending on the model parameters. This blatant violation of the familiar bulk-edge correspondence casts doubt on whether the bulk Chern number can still be a useful topological invariant, and demands a working theory that can predic…
In condensed matter physics, symmetry profoundly governs the fundamentals of topological matter. The emergence of new topological phase is typically linked to the enrichment of symmetries. Different parity-time symmetry relations distinguish between spinless and spinful physical systems. In spinless systems, creating pseudo-spins can realize fragile topological phase but not break the time-reversal symmetry. Therefore, growing attentions were recently focused on the strong topological phase in spinless systems. Here we break the framework of crystallographic symmetry groups by utilizing the pr…
Moiré Fractional Chern Insulators III: Hartree-Fock Phase Diagram, Magic Angle Regime for Chern Insulator States, the Role of the Moiré Potential and Goldstone Gaps in Rhombohedral Graphene Superlattices
