Square-root topological insulators are recently-proposed intriguing topological insulators, where the topologically nontrivial nature of Bloch wave functions is inherited from the square of the Hamiltonian. In this paper, we propose that higher-order topological insulators can also have their square-root descendants, which we term square-root higher-order topological insulators. There, emergence of in-gap corner states is inherited from the squared Hamiltonian which hosts higher-order topology. As an example of such systems, we investigate the tight-binding model on a decorated honeycomb lattice, whose squared Hamiltonian includes a breathing kagome-lattice model, a well-known example of higher-order topological insulators. We show that the in-gap corner states appear at finite energies, which coincides with the non-trivial bulk polarization. We further show that the existence of in-gap corner states results in characteristic single-particle dynamics, namely, setting the initial state to be localized at the corner, the particle stays at the corner even after a long time. Such characteristic dynamics may experimentally be detectable in photonic crystals.
We show that the decorated honeycomb lattice supports a number of topological insulating phases with a non-trivial Z_2 invariant and time-reversal symmetry protected gapless edge modes. We investigate the stability of these phases with respect to various symmetry breaking perturbations and demonstrate the connection to the recently discovered exactly solvable S=1/2 chiral spin liquid model [Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 247203 (2007)] with non-Abelian and Abelian excitations on the same lattice. Our work highlights the relationship between topological band insulators and topologically ordered spin syst…
Topological phases typically encode topology at the level of the single particle band structure. But a remarkable class of models shows that quantum anomalous Hall effects can be driven exclusively by interactions, while the parent non-interacting band structure is topologically trivial. Unfortunately, these models have so far relied on interactions that do not spatially decay and are therefore unphysical. We study a model of spinless fermions on a decorated honeycomb lattice. Using complementary methods, mean-field theory and exact diagonalization, we find a robust quantum anomalous Hall phas…
We propose topological semimetals generated by the square-root operation for tight-binding models in two and three dimensions, which we call square-root topological semimetals. The square-root topological semimetals host topological band touching at finite energies, whose topological protection is inherited from the squared Hamiltonian. Such a topological character is also reflected in emergence of boundary modes with finite energies. Specifically, focusing on topological properties of squared Hamiltonian in class AIII, we reveal that a decorated honeycomb (decorated diamond) model hosts finit…
We establish the existence of a chiral spin liquid (CSL) as the exact ground state of the Kitaev model on a decorated honeycomb lattice, which is obtained by replacing each site in the familiar honeycomb lattice with a triangle. The CSL state spontaneously breaks time reversal symmetry but preserves other symmetries. There are two topologically distinct CSLs separated by a quantum critical point. Interestingly, vortex excitations in the topologically nontrivial (Chern number $\pm 1$) CSL obey non-Abelian statistics.
Square-root topological states are new topological phases, whose topological property is inherited from the square of the Hamiltonian. We realize the first-order and second-order square-root topological insulators in phononic crystals, by putting additional cavities on connecting tubes in the acoustic Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model and the honeycomb lattice, respectively. Because of the square-root procedure, the bulk gap of the squared Hamiltonian is doubled. In both two bulk gaps, the square-root topological insulators possess multiple localized modes, i.e., the end and corner states, which are …
Square-root higher-order topological insulators (HOTIs) are recently discovered new topological phases, with intriguing topological properties inherited from a parent lattice Hamiltonian. Different from conventional HOTIs, the square-root HOTIs typically manifest two paired non-zero energy corner states. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate the second-order square-root HOTIs in photonics for the first time to our knowledge, thereby unveiling such distinct corner states. The specific platform is a laser-written decorated honeycomb lattice (HCL), for which the squared Hamiltonian represen…
Recent advances in ultracold atoms in optical lattices and developments in surface science have allowed for the creation of artificial lattices as well as the control of many-body interactions. Such systems provide new settings to investigate interaction-driven instabilities and non-trivial topology. In this paper, we explore the interplay between molecular electric dipoles on a two-dimensional triangular lattice with fermions hopping on the dual decorated honeycomb lattice which hosts Dirac and flat band states. We show that short-range dipole-dipole interaction can lead to ordering into vari…
The tight-binding model of quantum particles on a honeycomb lattice is investigated in the presence of homogeneous magnetic field. Provided the magnetic flux per unit hexagon is rational of the elementary flux, the one-particle Hamiltonian is expressed in terms of the generators of the quantum group $U_q(sl_2)$. Employing the functional representation of the quantum group $U_q(sl_2)$ the Harper equation is rewritten as a systems of two coupled functional equations in the complex plane. For the special values of quasi-momentum the entangled system admits solutions in terms of polynomials. The s…
The experimental observation of topological magnon bands and thermal Hall effect in a kagomé lattice ferromagnet Cu(1-3, bdc) has inspired the search for topological magnon effects in various insulating ferromagnets that lack an inversion center allowing a Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) spin-orbit interaction. The star lattice (also known as the decorated honeycomb lattice) ferromagnets is an ideal candidate for this purpose because it is a variant of the kagomé lattice with additional links that connect the up-pointing and down-pointing triangles. This gives rise to twice the unit cell of the kag…
We present analytical expressions for the polarizability $P_μ(q_x,ω)$ of graphene modeled by the hexagonal tight-binding model for small wave number $q_x$, but arbitrary chemical potential $μ$. Generally, we find $P_μ(q_x,ω)=P_μ^<(ω/ω_q)+q_x^2P_μ^>(ω)$ with $ω_q=v_Fq_x$ the Dirac energy, where the first term is due to intra-band and the second due to inter-band transitions. Explicitly, we derive the analytical expression for the imaginary part of the polarizability including intra-band contributions and recover the result obtained from the Dirac cone approximation for $μ\rightarrow0$. For $μ<\…
Notion of square-root topological insulators have been recently generalized to higher-order topological insulators. In two-dimensional square-root higher-order topological insulators, emergence of in-gap corner states are inherited from the squared Hamiltonian which hosts higher-order topology. In this paper, we propose that the martini lattice model serves as a concrete example of higher-order topological insulators. Furthermore, we also propose a suquare-root higher-order topological insulator based on the martini model. Specifically, we propose that the honeycomb lattice model with two-site…
The mathematical foundation of quantum mechanics is built on linear algebra, while the application of nonlinear operators can lead to outstanding discoveries under some circumstances. In this Letter, we propose a model of square-root higher-order Weyl semimetal (SHOWS) by inheriting features from its parent Hamiltonians. It is found that the SHOWS hosts both "Fermi-arc" surface and hinge states that connect the projection of the Weyl points. We theoretically construct and experimentally observe the exotic SHOWS state in three-dimensional (3D) stacked electric circuits with honeycomb-kagome hyb…
We investigate the ordering instability of interacting (and for simplicity, spinless) fermions on graphene's honeycomb lattice by numerically computing the Hartree self-consistent solution for the charge-density-wave order parameter in presence of both uniform and non-uniform magnetic fields. For a uniform field the overall behavior of the order parameter is found to be in accord with the continuum theory. In the inhomogeneous case, the spatial profile of the order parameter resembles qualitatively the form of the magnetic field itself, at least when the interaction is not overly strong. We fi…
Higher-order topological insulator (HOTI) represents a new phase of matter, the characterization of which goes beyond the conventional bulk-boundary correspondence and is attracting significant attention by the broad community. Using a square-root operation, it has been suggested that a square-root HOTI may emerge in a hybrid honeycomb-kagome lattice. Here, we report the first experimental realization of the square-root HOTI in topological LC circuits. We show theoretically and experimentally that the square-root HOTI inherits the feature of wave function from its parent, with corner states pi…
Landau quantization of $C_3$ high-fold fermions in honeycomb lattices
International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL)（伊比利亚纳米技术国际实验室）；Department of Physics and I3N, University of Aveiro（阿威罗大学物理系及I3N）；Departamento de Física, Universidad de Alicante（阿利坎特大学物理系）
