Edge-following topological states

DOI10.1016/J.GEOMPHYS.2020.103796MaRDI QIDQ2197174zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Publication date 28 August 2020

Published in Journal of Geometry and Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1908.09559

$K$-theory bulk-edge correspondence Toeplitz algebras topological insulators

Index theory (19K56) Semigroup rings, multiplicative semigroups of rings (20M25) General theory of infinite-dimensional Hamiltonian and Lagrangian systems, Hamiltonian and Lagrangian structures, symmetries, conservation laws (37K06) Applications of selfadjoint operator algebras to physics (46L60) (K)-theory and operator algebras (including cyclic theory) (46L80) Algebras of specific types of operators (Toeplitz, integral, pseudodifferential, etc.) (47L80) Many-body theory; quantum Hall effect (81V70)

Abstract: We prove that Chern insulators have topologically protected edge states which not only propagate unidirectionally along a straight line boundary, but also swerve around arbitrary-angled corners and geometric imperfections of the material boundary. This is a physical manifestation of the index theory of certain semigroup operator algebras.

Review text

Let $\mathcal H = \ell^2(\mathbb Z^2) \otimes \mathbb C^2$ be the tight-binding Hilbert space with two degrees of freedom per lattice site and with the natural regular representation $U_\gamma \otimes I$, $\gamma \in \mathbb Z^2$ by translations on $\ell^2_{\mathrm {reg}}(\mathbb Z^2)$ and trivial action on the internal factor $\mathbb C^2$. A tight-binding bulk Hamitonian is a bounded self-adjoint operator $H = \sum_{\gamma\in \mathbb Z^2} U_\gamma\otimes W_\gamma \in \mathcal B(\ell^2(\mathbb Z^2) \otimes \mathbb C^2)$, $H^*= H$, where $W_\gamma$ is a $2\times 2$ hopping matrix, $W_\gamma^* = W_{-\gamma}$. The Fourier transform $\mathcal F: \ell^2(\mathbb Z^2) \otimes \mathbb C^2 \to L^2(\mathbb T^2) \otimes \mathbb C^2$ moves $H$ into $\mathcal F H \mathcal F^{-1} = \int_{\mathbb T^2}^{\otimes} H_k\,dk$. The spectrum $\sigma(H)$ of $H$ is the union of the spectra $\sigma(H_k)$ of components $H_k$. The spectral gap hypothesis is whether $\sigma(H) = [a,b] \cup [c,d]$, $b<c$. The lower energy eigenspace $\mathcal L^-_k$, $k\in K$ of $H_k$ provides a line bundle $\mathcal L^- \to \mathbb T^2$ of nontrivial valence, the \textit{Chern insulator} is a Hamiltonian operator $H$, the Chern first class $c_1(\mathcal L^-)\ne 0$ of which is nonvanishing or equivalently, the reduced $K$-theory class $[\mathcal L^-]-[1] \in \tilde{K}^0(\mathbb T^2)$ is nontrivial. Let $\varphi$ be any continuous real-valued function, evaluating 1 on $(-\infty, b]$ and 0 on $[c,+\infty)$, then the valence bundle $\mathcal L^-$ corresponding to some projector $P_- = \varphi(H)$ in the $2\times 2$-matrix algebras $M_2(C^*_r(\mathbb Z^2)) \cong M_2(C(\mathbb T^2))$ has $[P_-] = (1-k)[1] + k[b]$. The bulk Hamiltonian $H$ for a Chern insulator has a spectral gap, the true Hamiltonian $\hat H$ has extra ``chiral edge states filling up the spectral gap of $H$. This can be modelled as the truncation $\ell^2(\mathbb Z^2)$ to $\ell^2(\mathbb N\times \mathbb Z)$. Let $\mathcal T$ be the \textit{Toeplitz algebra}, \[0\to\mathcal K(\ell^2(\mathbb N))\mathcal T \overset{\pi}{\rightarrow} C^*_r(\mathbb Z) \overset{\text{Fourier}}{\cong}C(\mathbb{T}\to 0),\] with $K$-groups $K_0(\mathcal T) = \mathbb Z$, $K_1(\mathcal T) = 0$, and the \textit{Toeplitz half-plane C*-algebra} $C^*_r(\mathbb N \times \mathbb Z) \cong \mathcal T \otimes C^*_r(\mathbb Z))$, generated by the operators $\hat{U}_\gamma$, $\gamma \in \mathbb N \times \mathbb Z$. There is a short exact squence of C*-algebras \[0\to J \cong \mathcal K(\ell^2(\mathbb N)) \otimes C^*_r(\mathbb Z)C^*_r(\mathbb N \times \mathbb Z)\cong \mathcal T \otimes C^*_r(\mathbb Z)) \overset{\pi}{\rightarrow}C^*_r(\mathbb Z^2)\to 0,\] where $\pi$ is the projection of operators, $\hat{U}_\gamma\in\mathcal B(\ell^2(\mathbb N \times \mathbb Z))$ on the corresponding $U_\gamma\in \mathcal B(\ell^2(\mathbb Z^2))$. The bulk Hamiltonian $H$ corresponds to the truncated half-plane Hamiltonian $\hat{H}$, defined also on the boundary and acting on $\ell^2(\mathbb N\times \mathbb Z) \otimes \mathbb C^2$. The author computes the Chern insultators in terms of connecting morphisms (the index maps and the exponential maps) of the associated hexagons in $K$-theory. The same is done also for the \textit{bumpy quarter-plane algebras} (\S3) (Theorem 3.14), the \textit{rational slope quarter-plane with imperfect boundary algebras} (\S4), and the \textit{cyclic 1-cocycles for boundary algebras} (\S5).

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