Publications

2018

Biorthogonal Bulk-Boundary Correspondence in Non-Hermitian Systems

Flore K. Kunst, Elisabet Edvardsson, Jan Carl Budich, Emil J. Bergholtz

Physical Review Letters 121 (2) 026808 (2018) | Journal

Non-Hermitian systems exhibit striking exceptions from the paradigmatic bulk-boundary correspondence, including the failure of bulk Bloch band invariants in predicting boundary states and the (dis) appearance of boundary states at parameter values far from those corresponding to gap closings in periodic systems without boundaries. Here, we provide a comprehensive framework to unravel this disparity based on the notion of biorthogonal quantum mechanics: While the properties of the left and right eigenstates corresponding to boundary modes are individually decoupled from the bulk physics in non-Hermitian systems, their combined biorthogonal density penetrates the bulk precisely when phase transitions occur. This leads to generalized bulk-boundary correspondence and a quantized biorthogonal polarization that is formulated directly in systems with open boundaries. We illustrate our general insights by deriving the phase diagram for several microscopic open boundary models, including exactly solvable non-Hermitian extensions of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model and Chern insulators.

suggested by editors

Lattice models with exactly solvable topological hinge and corner states

Flore K. Kunst, Guido van Miert, Emil J. Bergholtz

Physical Review B 97 (24) 241405 (2018) | Journal

We devise a generic recipe for constructing D-dimensional lattice models whose d-dimensional boundary states, located on surfaces, hinges, corners, and so forth, can be obtained exactly. The solvability is rooted in the underlying lattice structure and as such does not depend on fine tuning, allowing us to track their evolution throughout various phases and across phase transitions. Most saliently, our models provide "boundary solvable" examples of the recently introduced higher-order topological phases. We apply our general approach to breathing and anisotropic kagome and pyrochlore lattices for which we obtain exact corner eigenstates, and to periodically driven two-dimensional models as well as to three-dimensional lattices where we present exact solutions corresponding to one-dimensional chiral states at the hinges of the lattice. We relate the higher-order topological nature of these models to reflection symmetries in combination with their provenance from lower-dimensional conventional topological phases.

Transversal magnetotransport in Weyl semimetals: Exact numerical approach

Jan Behrends, Flore Kunst, Bjoern Sbierski

Physical Review B 97 (6) 064203 (2018) | Journal

Magnetotransport experiments on Weyl semimetals are essential for investigating the intriguing topological and low-energy properties of Weyl nodes. If the transport direction is perpendicular to the applied magnetic field, experiments have shown a large positive magnetoresistance. In this work we present a theoretical scattering matrix approach to transversal magnetotransport in a Weyl node. Our numerical method confirms and goes beyond the existing perturbative analytical approach by treating disorder exactly. It is formulated in real space and is applicable to mesoscopic samples as well as in the bulk limit. In particular, we study the case of clean and strongly disordered samples.

Contact

Lise Meitner Research Group Flore Kunst

Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light
Staudtstr. 2
91058 Erlangen, Germany

flore.kunst@mpl.mpg.de

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