Bulk-boundary correspondence for disordered free-fermion topological phases (Q779636)

Topological quantum phases are exotic phases of matter for which topology plays an important role in understanding their physical properties. The characterization and classification of topological phases have attracted considerable interest in both the physics and mathematics communities. This paper targets at topological phases of gapped free fermionic systems in the presence of disorder. By developing a classification scheme that applies to all symmetry classes of the Tenfold Way, the authors provide a mathematically rigorous proof of bulk-edge correspondence for disordered gapped free fermions. The classification scheme is built on the Nambu space formalism, which treats topological insulators and topological superconductors on equal footing. In the Nambu space, real C\(^*\)-algebras are introduced, which are suitable for dealing with both ``real'' and ``complex'' symmetry classes, and the symmetries are incorporated by using Clifford algebras. These C\(^*\)-algebras encode the bulk and boundary data of disordered free-fermionic ground states, each of which is attached to a bulk class and a boundary class. The fact that these classes can be mapped to each other thus establishes bulk-edge correspondence in the presence of disorder.