Advances in quantum mechanics. Contemporary trends and open problems

DOI10.1007/978-3-319-58904-6MaRDI QIDQ2397331zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors

Publication date 22 May 2017

Published in Springer INdAM Series (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1705.06534

Collections of articles of miscellaneous specific interest (00B15) Physics (00A79) Proceedings, conferences, collections, etc. pertaining to functional analysis (46-06) Proceedings, conferences, collections, etc. pertaining to operator theory (47-06) Proceedings, conferences, collections, etc. pertaining to quantum theory (81-06) General mathematical topics and methods in quantum theory (81Qxx)

Abstract: The use of topological invariants to describe geometric phases of quantum matter has become an essential tool in modern solid state physics. The first instance of this paradigmatic trend can be traced to the study of the quantum Hall effect, in which the Chern number underlies the quantization of the transverse Hall conductivity. More recently, in the framework of time-reversal symmetric topological insulators and quantum spin Hall systems, a new topological classification has been proposed by Fu, Kane and Mele, where the label takes value in

m a t h b b Z_{2}

. We illustrate how both the Chern number

c i n m a t h b b Z

and the Fu-Kane-Mele invariant

d e l t a i n m a t h b b Z_{2}

of 2-dimensional topological insulators can be characterized as topological obstructions. Indeed,

c

quantifies the obstruction to the existence of a frame of Bloch states for the crystal which is both continuous and periodic with respect to the crystal momentum. Instead,

d e l t a

measures the possibility to impose a further time-reversal symmetry constraint on the Bloch frame.

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