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arXiv:1606.06359 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Boundary-induced dynamics in one-dimensional topological systems and memory effects of edge modes

Yan He, Chih-Chun Chien

Published Jul 29, 2016• 8 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Dynamics induced by a change of boundary conditions reveals rate-dependent signatures associated with topological properties in one-dimensional Kitaev chain and SSH model. While the perturbation from a change of the boundary propagates into the bulk, the density of topological edge modes in the case of transforming to open boundary condition reaches steady states. The steady-state density depends on the transformation rate of the boundary and serves as an illustration of quantum memory effects in topological systems. Moreover, while a link is physically broken as the boundary condition changes, some correlation functions can remain finite across the broken link and keep a record of the initial condition. By testing those phenomena in the nontopological regimes of the two models, none of the interesting signatures of memory effects can be observed. Our results thus contrast the importance of topological properties in boundary-induced dynamics.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.94.024308

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Dynamics induced by a change of boundary conditions reveals rate-dependent signatures associated with topological properties in one-dimensional Kitaev chain and SSH model. While the perturbation from a change of the boundary propagates into the bulk, the density of topological edge modes in the case of transforming to open boundary condition reaches steady states. The steady-state density depends on the transformation rate of the boundary and serves as an illustration of quantum memory effects in topological systems. Moreover, while a link is physically broken as the boundary condition changes, some correlation functions can remain finite across the broken link and keep a record of the initial condition. By testing those phenomena in the nontopological regimes of the two models, none of the interesting signatures of memory effects can be observed. Our results thus contrast the importance of topological properties in boundary-induced dynamics.
The influence of boundary conditions on bulk properties is generally expected to vanish in the thermodynamic limit. Here we show that this expectation can fail in an open transverse field Ising chain with modified boundary fields. By removing only the transverse fields acting on the two edge spins while leaving the bulk Hamiltonian unchanged, we uncover a boundary-induced switching of the topological spectral degeneracy. In contrast to the conventional open chain, where the topological degeneracy occurs in the ferromagnetic phase (∣g∣<1\left\vert g\right\vert <1∣g∣<1), the modified boundary condition shifts it to the paramagnetic phase (∣g∣>1\left\vert g\right\vert >1∣g∣>1). We demonstrate that the underlying mechanism originates from two exact local conserved quantities associated with the edge spins, which partition the Hilbert space into invariant sectors. Based on this structure, we establish an exact description in terms of domain-wall excitations, under which the Hamiltonian decomposes into two independent Kitaev chains. Complementarily, the Majorana representation reveals that the spectral switching originates from different unit-cell conventions and boundary terminations of the corresponding effective SSH lattice, leading to distinct boundary zero-mode structures without altering the bulk Hamiltonian. Furthermore, we show that the boundary-induced topological degeneracy remains observable at finite temperatures through non-Hermitian quench dynamics, providing a dynamical manifestation of the bulk-boundary correspondence. These results demonstrate that boundary engineering, through the introduction of local conserved boundary degrees of freedom, provides an effective route for controlling topological degeneracy in quantum spin chains without modifying bulk interactions.
We investigate the effects of dissipation and driving on topological order in superconducting nanowires. Rather than studying the non-equilibrium steady state, we propose a method to classify and detect dynamical signatures of topological order in open quantum systems. Bulk winding numbers for the Lindblad generator \hat{\mathcal{L}} ℒ ̂ of the dissipative Kitaev chain are found to be linked to the presence of Majorana edge master modes – localized eigenmodes of \hat{\mathcal{L}} ℒ ̂ . Despite decaying in time, these modes provide dynamical fingerprints of the topological phases of the closed system, which are now separated by intermediate regions where winding numbers are ill-defined and the bulk-boundary correspondence breaks down. Combining these techniques with the Floquet formalism reveals higher winding numbers and different types of edge modes under periodic driving. Finally, we link the presence of edge modes to a steady state current.
One of the important characteristics of topological phases of matter is the topology of the underlying manifold on which they are defined. In this paper, we present the sensitivity of such phases of matter to the underlying topology, by studying the phase transitions induced due to the change in the boundary conditions. We claim that these phase transitions are accompanied by broken symmetries in the excitation space and to gain further insight we analyze various signatures like the ground state degeneracy, topological entanglement entropy while introducing the open-loop operator whose expectation value effectively captures the phase transition. Further, we extend the analysis to an open quantum setup by defining effective collapse operators, the dynamics of which cool the system to distinct steady states both of which are topologically ordered. We show that the phase transition between such steady states is effectively captured by the expectation value of the open-loop operator.
Robust states emerging at the boundaries of a system are an important hallmark of topological matter. Here, using the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model and the Kitaev chain as examples, we study the impact of a type of experimentally realizable bond dissipation on topological systems by calculating the steady-state density matrix, and demonstrate that such dissipation applied near the system boundary can assist in preparing topological edge states of the parent Hamiltonian, irrespective of the initial state or filling. This effect stems from the matching between the phase distribution encoded in the topological edge states and the target state prepared through bond dissipation. This work provides new insights into the preparation of topological edge states, particularly in the context of Majorana zero modes.
We study the properties of one-dimensional topological superconductors under the influence of generic boundary conditions mimicking the coupling with external environments. We identify a general four-parameter classification of the boundary effects and show that particle-hole and reflection symmetries can be broken or preserved by appropriately fixing the boundary parameters. When the particle-hole symmetry is broken, the topological protection of the edge modes is lost due to the hybridization with the external degrees of freedom. We assess the robustness of the edge modes in the various regimes by considering different quantifiers of topological properties. In particular, we investigate the resilience of the long-distance, edge-to-edge quantum mutual information and squashed entanglement, measuring the nonlocal correlations of the Majorana excitations. Besides their relevance for the open dynamics of topological systems, these results may provide a useful guide to the appropriate embedding of low-dimensional topological systems on nanodevices in realistic conditions.
Despite recent intensive research on topological aspects of open quantum systems, effects of strong interactions have not been sufficiently explored. In this paper, we demonstrate that complex-valued interactions induce the Liouvillian skin effect by analyzing a one-dimensional correlated model with two-body loss. We show that, in the presence of complex-valued interactions, eigenmodes and eigenvalues of the Liouvillian strongly depend on boundary conditions. Specifically, we find that complex-valued interactions induce localization of eigenmodes of the Liouvillian around the right edge under open boundary conditions. To characterize the Liouvillian skin effect, we define the topological invariant by using the Liouvillian superoperator. Then, we numerically confirm that the topological invariant captures the Liouvillian skin effect. Furthermore, the presence of the localization of eigenmodes results in the unique dynamics observed only under open boundary conditions: particle accumulation at the right edge in transient dynamics. Our result paves the way to realize topological phenomena in open quantum systems induced by strong interactions.