No Arabic abstract
Topological insulators (TIs) with robust boundary states against perturbations and disorders provide a unique approach for manipulating waves, whereas curved space can effectively control the wave propagation on curved surfaces by the geometric potential effect as well. In general, two-dimensional (2D) TIs are designed on a flat surface; however, in most practical cases, curved topological structures are required. In this study, we design a 2D curved acoustic TI by perforation on a curved rigid plate. We experimentally demonstrate that a topological localized state stands erect in the bulk gap, and the corresponding pressure distributions are confined at the position with the maximal curvature. Moreover, we experimentally verify the robustness of the topological localized state by introducing defects near the localized position. To understand the underlying mechanism of the topological localized state, a tight-binding model considering the geometric potential effect is proposed. The interaction between the geometrical curvature and topology in the system provides a novel scheme for manipulating and trapping wave propagation along the boundary of curved TIs, thereby offering potential applications in flexible devices.
Topological defects (TDs) in crystal lattices are elementary lattice imperfections that cannot be removed by local perturbations, due to their real space topology. We show that adding TDs into a valley photonic crystal generates a lattice disclination that acts like a domain wall and hosts topological edge states. The disclination functions as a freeform waveguide connecting a pair of TDs of opposite topological charge. This interplay between the real-space topology of lattice defects and band topology provides a novel scheme to implement large-scale photonic structures with complex arrangements of robust topological waveguides and resonators.
We present an exact solution of a modifed Dirac equation for topological insulator in the presence of a hole or vacancy to demonstrate that vacancies may induce bound states in the band gap of topological insulators. They arise due to the Z_2 classification of time-reversal invariant insulators, thus are also topologically-protected like the edge states in the quantum spin Hall effect and the surface states in three-dimensional topological insulators. Coexistence of the in-gap bound states and the edge or surface states in topological insulators suggests that imperfections may affect transport properties of topological insulators via additional bound states near the system boundary.
In this work, based on a recently introduced localization scheme for scalar fields, we argue that the geometry of the space-time, where the particle states of a scalar field are localized, is intimately related to the quantum entanglement of these states. More specifically, we show that on curved space-time can only be localized entangled states, while separable states are located on flat space-time. Our result goes in parallel with recent theoretical developments in the context of AdS/CFT correspondence which uncovered connections between gravity and quantum entanglement.
Acoustic systems that are without limitations imposed by the Fermi level have been demonstrated as significant platform for the exploration of fruitful topological phases. By surrounding the nontrivial domain with trivial environment, the domain-wall topological states have been theoretically and experimentally demonstrated. In this work, based on the topological crystalline insulator with a kagome lattice, we rigorously derive the corresponding Hamiltonian from the traditional acoustics perspective, and exactly reveal the correspondences of the hopping and onsite terms within acoustic systems. Crucially, these results directly indicate that instead of applying the trivial domain, the soft boundary condition precisely corresponds to the theoretical models which always require generalized chiral symmetry. These results provide a general platform to construct desired acoustic topological devices hosting desired topological phenomena for versatile applications.
We investigate in a fully quantum-mechanical manner how the many-body excitation spectrum of topological insulators is affected by the presence of long-range Coulomb interactions. In the one-dimensional Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model and its mirror-symmetric variant strongly localized plasmonic excitations are observed which originate from topologically non-trivial single-particle states. These textit{topological plasmons} inherit some of the characteristics of their constituent topological single-particle states, but they are not equally well protected against disorder due to the admixture of non-topological bulk single-particle states in the polarization function. The strength of the effective Coulomb interactions is also shown to have strong effects on the plasmonic modes. Furthermore, we show how external modifications via dielectric screening and applied electric fields with distinct symmetries can be used to study topological plasmons, thus allowing for experimental verification of our atomistic predictions.