No Arabic abstract
We show that the bulk winding number characterizing one-dimensional topological insulators with chiral symmetry can be detected from the displacement of a single particle, observed via losses. Losses represent the effect of repeated weak measurements on one sublattice only, which interrupt the dynamics periodically. When these do not detect the particle, they realize negative measurements. Our repeated measurement scheme covers both time-independent and periodically driven (Floquet) topological insulators, with or without spatial disorder. In the limit of rapidly repeated, vanishingly weak measurements, our scheme describes non-Hermitian Hamiltonians, as the lossy Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model of Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 065703 (2009). We find, contrary to intuition, that the time needed to detect the winding number can be made shorter by decreasing the efficiency of the measurement. We illustrate our results on a discrete-time quantum walk, and propose ways of testing them experimentally.
We proposed a group-theory method to calculate topological invariant in bi-isotropic photonic crystals invariant under crystallographic point group symmetries. Spin Chern number has been evaluated by the eigenvalues of rotation operators at high symmetry k-points after the pseudo-spin polarized fields are retrieved. Topological characters of photonic edge states and photonic band gaps can be well predicted by total spin Chern number. Nontrivial phase transition is found in large magnetoelectric coupling due to the jump of total spin Chern number. Light transport is also issued at the {epsilon}/{mu} mismatching boundary between air and the bi-isotropic photonic crystal. This finding presents the relationship between group symmetry and photonic topological systems, which enables the design of photonic nontrivial states in a rational manner.
Non-Bloch topological invariants preserve the bulk-boundary correspondence in non-Hermitian topological systems, and are a key concept in the contemporary study of non-Hermitian topology. Here we report the dynamic detection of non-Bloch topological invariants in single-photon quantum walks, revealed through the biorthogonal chiral displacement, and crosschecked with the dynamic spin textures in the generalized quasimomentum-time domain following a quantum quench. Both detection schemes are robust against symmetry-preserving disorders, and yield consistent results with theoretical predictions. Our experiments are performed far away from any boundaries, and therefore underline non-Bloch topological invariants as intrinsic properties of the system that persist in the thermodynamic limit. Our work sheds new light on the experimental investigation of non-Hermitian topology.
One of the hallmarks of topological insulators is the correspondence between the value of its bulk topological invariant and the number of topologically protected edge modes observed in a finite-sized sample. This bulk-boundary correspondence has been well-tested for strong topological invariants, and forms the basis for all proposed technological applications of topology. Here, we report that a group of weak topological invariants, which depend only on the symmetries of the atomic lattice, also induces a particular type of bulk-boundary correspondence. It predicts the presence or absence of states localised at the interface between two inversion-symmetric band insulators with trivial values for their strong invariants, based on the space group representation of the bands on either side of the junction. We show that this corresponds with symmetry-based classifications of topological materials. The interface modes are protected by the combination of band topology and symmetry of the interface, and may be used for topological transport and signal manipulation in heterojunction-based devices.
Eigenenergies of a non-Hermitian system without parity-time symmetry are complex in general. Here, we show that the chiral boundary states of non-Hermitian topological insulators without parity-time symmetry can be Hermitian with real eigenenergies under certain conditions. Our finding allows one to construct Hermitian chiral edge and hinge states from non-Hermitian two-dimensional Chern insulators and three-dimensional second-order topological insulators, respectively. Such Hermitian chiral boundary channels have perfect transmission coefficients (quantized values) and are robust against disorders. Furthermore, a non-Hermitian topological insulator can undergo the topological Anderson insulator transition from a topological trivial non-Hermitian metal or insulator to a topological Anderson insulator with quantized transmission coefficients at finite disorders.
Second-order topological insulators are crystalline insulators with a gapped bulk and gapped crystalline boundaries, but topologically protected gapless states at the intersection of two boundaries. Without further spatial symmetries, five of the ten Altland-Zirnbauer symmetry classes allow for the existence of such second-order topological insulators in two and three dimensions. We show that reflection symmetry can be employed to systematically generate examples of second-order topological insulators and superconductors, although the topologically protected states at corners (in two dimensions) or at crystal edges (in three dimensions) continue to exist if reflection symmetry is broken. A three-dimensional second-order topological insulator with broken time-reversal symmetry shows a Hall conductance quantized in units of $e^2/h$.