The Fermi gerbe of Weyl semimetals (Q2038984)

In this article, the authors study half-space quaternionic Dirac equations in five dimensions, corresponding to a 5d Weyl semimetal phase, and describe a topological invariant associated with the boundary. This invariant turns out to be related to the Dixmier-Douady class of a ``Fermi gerbe'' -- a generalization of fiber bundles -- which is constructed explicitly and which encodes how discrete spectra of families of operators interpolate over the gap in the essential spectrum. The Dirac Hamiltonian, originally proposed to describe fermions in high-energy physics, has often been invoked in condensed matter physics as a low-energy effective description of various topological phases. Such systems exhibit a ``bulk-boundary correspondence,'' whereby the ``bulk'' spectrum (\textit{i.e.}, the spectrum of the Hamiltonian operator over \(\mathbb{R}^{d}\)) is gapped, while ``boundary'' spectrum (\textit{i.e.}, the spectrum of the Hamiltonian over the half space \(\mathbb{R}^{d-1}\times\mathbb{R}^+\)) contains a discrete component which bridges the spectral gap as certain parameters are tuned. This \textit{spectral flow} ensures that such systems are topological, in that they cannot be continuously deformed to a system with gapped boundary spectrum without closing the spectral gap. The Dirac Hamiltonian in \(d+1\) spacetime dimensions for fermions with mass \(m=1\) can be generically written as \(\mathcal{D} = \mathbf{p}\cdot\boldsymbol{\Gamma} + \Gamma_{d+1}\), where \(p_i = -i \partial_i, \; i=1,\dots, d\) is the momentum operator and \(\{ \Gamma_a \}_{a=1}^{d+1}\) form a set of anticommuting matrices. The existence of in-gap discrete spectrum is most readily obtained for \(d=1\), whereby the spectrum of \(\mathcal{D}\) is \(\{\pm \sqrt{k^2 + 1} \}_{k\in\mathbb{R}}\), so that the spectrum has a gap \((-1,1)\). If we now consider the operator \(\mathcal{D}_\omega\), a restriction of \(\mathcal{D}\) to the half line \(\mathbb{R}^+\) with the boundary condition \(\psi(0) \propto (1, \omega)^T\) with \(\omega = \mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i}\theta} \in \mathrm{U}(1)\), then it possesses an additional discrete eigenvalue \(\cos\theta\) if \( \theta\in[0,\pi]\), which spans the gap as \(\theta\) varies over \(\mathrm{U}(1)\), termed the spectral flow. More abstractly, \(\mathcal{D}_\omega\) with \(\omega\in\mathrm{U}(1) \cong S^1\) defines a noncontractible loop in \(\mathcal{CF}^\text{sa}\), the space of \textit{unbounded self-adjoint Fredholm operators}. Since the spectral flow is \(+1\), \(\mathcal{D}_\omega\) represents a generator of the fundamental group \(\pi_1(\mathcal{CF}^\text{sa}) \cong \mathbb{Z}\). This winding number can be associated with the Chern number of a line bundle, which is the relevant topological invariant for such systems. In this article, the authors generalize this construction to a \(1+1\) dimensional quaternionic Dirac operator, \textit{i.e.}, where the \(\Gamma\)'s are \(2\times2\) matrices with quaternionic entries, which can alternatively be represented by a \(4\times4\) complex-valued matrix. The essential spectrum is same as the previous case, while for the discrete spectrum, one now imposes a boundary condition \(\psi(0) \propto (1, q)^T\) with \(q\in \mathrm{Sp}(1) \cong \mathrm{SU}(2)\). An arbitrary element in \(\mathrm{SU}(2)\) can be written using the Pauli matrices as \(q = q_0 + \mathrm{i} \mathbf{q}\cdot\boldsymbol\sigma\), with \(q_0^2 + |\mathbf{q}|^2 = 1\). The discrete spectrum of \(D_q\) is now given by \(q_0\) if \(|q_0| < 1\). Since \(q \in \mathrm{SU}(2)\cong S^{3}\), \(q \mapsto D_q\) defines a map \(S^3 \to \mathcal{CF}^\text{sa}\), which now generates the homotopy group \(\pi_3(\mathcal{CF}^\text{sa}) \cong \mathbb{Z}\). However, this does not have an interpretation in terms of a line bundle; instead, the relevant mathematical object, that the authors explicitly construct, is a \textit{bundle gerbe}. A bundle gerbe constitutes a generalization of the notion of fiber bundles. The latter can be defined over a topological space \(X\) in terms of an open cover, whereby one associates a product space with each open set, transition functions for each intersection and a consistency (cocycle) condition for every triple intersection. In contrast, a bundle gerbe is defined by associating a line bundle to every double intersection, a transition map for every triple intersection and a consistency condition for every quadruple intersection. The analogue of Chern class for bundle gerbes is the Dixmier-Douady class, which turns out to be precisely the third homotopy group whose generator is represented by the half-space quaternionic Dirac Hamiltonian. This article thus defines a new kind of topological invariant and the associated bulk-boundary correspondence for higher-dimensional topological phases.