Symmetry classes of disordered fermions (Q2571144)

The authors provide a classification of disordered fermion systems with quadratic Hamiltonians by their unitary and antiunitary symmetries. The work is motivated by a classical article of \textit{F. J. Dyson} [J. Math. Phys. 3, 1199--1215 (1962; Zbl 0134.45703)] on matrix ensembles and a conjecture on the correspondence between symmetry classes and symmetric spaces by \textit{A. Altland} and \textit{M. R. Zirnbauer} in [Phys. Rev. B 55, 1142--1161 (1997)]. Important physical examples like Dirac fermions or quasiparticle dynamics suggest that one has to go beyond the framework considered by Dyson. One starts with a Hilbert space \(\mathcal V\), modelling the single fermion states, which carries a unitary representation of a compact Lie group \(G_{0}\). Then one introduces the Nambu space of fermionic field operators \({\mathcal W} = {\mathcal V} \otimes {\mathcal V}^{\ast}\) equipped with a canonical unitary structure \(\langle \cdot,\cdot \rangle\) and a bilinear form \(b(\cdot,\cdot)\). On \(\mathcal W\) one has the induced \(G_{0}\) representation. Now, \(G_{0}\) is assumed to be a subgroup of the whole symmetry group \(G\) where the latter is generated by \(G_{0}\) and at most two distinguished antiunitary time-reversal operators. Furthermore, \(G_{0}\) is the group acting unitarily on \(\mathcal W\) preserving the decomposition \({\mathcal V} \otimes {\mathcal V}^{\ast}\) under the given assumptions. The classification is achieved by transferring the problem to the space of endomorphisms \(\text{End}({\mathcal V}\otimes {\mathcal V}^{\ast})\) in a way such that the group \(G_{0}\) acts trivially. Having established this basic step the classification is done step by step investigating all possibilities to generate \(G\). The assumptions are well motivated by lots of examples from physics that serve as well for illustrating their result.