Toeplitz operators on concave corners and topologically protected corner states (Q2329425)

For each ordered pair of integers \((j, k)\), define a function \(e_{j, k}\) on \(\mathbb{Z}^2\) that has value \(1\) at \((j, k)\) and is zero elsewhere. The set \(\{e_{j, k}\}\) is the standard orthonormal basis for the Hilbert space \(\ell^2(\mathbb{Z}^2)\). For each \((m, n)\) in \(\mathbb{Z}^2\), define a bounded linear operator \(M_{m, n}\) on \(\ell^2(\mathbb{Z}^2)\) by requiring that \(M_{m ,n}e_{j ,k} = e_{m+j, n+k}\) for all \((j, k)\) in \(\mathbb{Z}^2\). Next, choose real numbers \(\alpha\) and \(\beta\) with \(\alpha < \beta\), and define \(\mathcal{H}^\alpha\) and \(\mathcal{H}^\beta\) to be the Hilbert subspaces of \(\ell^2(\mathbb{Z}^2)\) spanned by the sets \(\{e_{j ,k} : -\alpha j + k \geq 0\}\) and \(\{e_{j ,k} : -\beta j + k \leq 0\}\), respectively. In earlier work, \textit{L. A. Coburn} et al. [J. Differ. Geom. 6, 587--593 (1972; Zbl 0252.47026)], \textit{E. Park} [J. Oper. Theory 23, No. 1, 125--146 (1990; Zbl 0732.47031)], and \textit{X. Jiang} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 123, No. 9, 2823--2830 (1995; Zbl 0845.47019)] studied the index theory of operators in the Toeplitz algebra \(\hat{\mathcal{T}}^{\alpha, \beta}\) generated by the compressions of the operators \(M_{m ,n}\) to \(\mathcal{H}^\alpha \cap \mathcal{H}^\beta\). In the paper under review, the author forms a Toeplitz algebra \(\check{\mathcal{T}}^{\alpha, \beta}\) by compressing the \(M_{m, n}\) to the span of \(\mathcal{H}^\alpha\) and \(\mathcal{H}^\beta\). He obtains index theory results similar to those established in the three aforementioned papers. The novel idea in this paper is that the author applies his results to the study of topologically protected corner states, which arise in understanding higher-order topological insulators in condensed matter physics.