\(C^1\)-classification of gapped parent Hamiltonians of quantum spin chains (Q2353999)

One says that two gapped Hamiltonians are \(C^1\)-equivalent when and only when they are connected by a continuous and piecewise \(C^1\)-path of uniformly gapped Hamiltonians. As the main result of this paper, it is shown that the number of edge modes is exactly the complete invariant of the \(C^1\)-classification within the family of gapped Hamiltonians. To this end, one constructs a smooth path of uniformly gapped Hamiltonians between any two given elements of the family which have the same number of edge modes. The proof is based on the ground state structure of Hamiltonians and uses the path deformation technique.