We investigate the appearance of new types of insulators and superconductors in long-range (LR) fermionic quantum systems. These phases are not included in the famous 'ten-fold way classification' (TWC), valid in the short-range (SR) limit. This conclusion is obtained analysing at first specific one-dimensional models, in particular their phase diagrams and entanglement properties. The LR phases are signalled, for instance, by the violation of the area-law for the von Neumann entropy and by a corresponding peculiar entanglement spectrum (ES). Later on, the origin of the deviations from the TWC is investigated from a more general point of view and in any dimension, showing that it is related with the presence of divergences occurring in the spectrum, due to the LR couplings. A satisfying characterization for the LR phases can be achieved, at least for one-dimensional quantum systems, as well as the definition of a nontrivial topology for them, resulting in the presence of massive edge states, provided a careful evaluation of the LR contributions. Our results allows to infer, at least for one-dimensional models, the weakening of the bulk-boundary correspondence, due to the important correlations between bulk and edges, and consequently to clarify the nature of the massive edge states. The emergence of this peculiar edge structure is signalled again by the bulk ES. The stability of the LR phases against local disorder is also discussed, showing notably that this ingredient can even strengthen the effect of the LR couplings. Finally, we analyse the entanglement content of the paradigmatic LR Ising chain, inferring again important deviations from the SR regime, as well as the limitations of bulk-boundary (tensor-network based) approaches to classify LR spin models.
We investigate the appearance of new types of insulators and superconductors in long-range (LR) fermionic quantum systems. These phases are not included in the famous 'ten-fold way classification' (TWC), valid in the short-range (SR) limit. This conclusion is obtained analysing at first specific one-dimensional models, in particular their phase diagrams and entanglement properties. The LR phases are signalled, for instance, by the violation of the area-law for the von Neumann entropy and by a corresponding peculiar entanglement spectrum (ES). Later on, the origin of the deviations from the TWC is investigated from a more general point of view and in any dimension, showing that it is related with the presence of divergences occurring in the spectrum, due to the LR couplings. A satisfying characterization for the LR phases can be achieved, at least for one-dimensional quantum systems, as well as the definition of a nontrivial topology for them, resulting in the presence of massive edge states, provided a careful evaluation of the LR contributions. Our results allows to infer, at least for one-dimensional models, the weakening of the bulk-boundary correspondence, due to the important correlations between bulk and edges, and consequently to clarify the nature of the massive edge states. The emergence of this peculiar edge structure is signalled again by the bulk ES. The stability of the LR phases against local disorder is also discussed, showing notably that this ingredient can even strengthen the effect of the LR couplings. Finally, we analyse the entanglement content of the paradigmatic LR Ising chain, inferring again important deviations from the SR regime, as well as the limitations of bulk-boundary (tensor-network based) approaches to classify LR spin models.
We study the zero-temperature phase diagram of a two-dimensional square lattice loaded by spinless fermions, with nearest-neighbor hopping and algebraically decaying pairing. We find that for sufficiently long-range pairing, new phases occur, not continuously connected with any short-range phase and not belonging to the standard families of topological insulators/superconductors. These phases are signaled by the violation of the area law for the von Neumann entropy, by semi-integer Chern numbers, and by edge modes with nonzero mass. The latter feature results in the absence of single-fermion edge conductivity, present instead in the short-range limit. The definition of a bulk-topology and the presence of a bulk-boundary correspondence is suggested also for the long-range phases. Recent experimental proposals and advances open the possibility to probe the described long-range effects in near-future realistic setups.
We analyze the quantum phases, correlation functions and edge modes for a class of spin-1/2 and fermionic models related to the one-dimensional Ising chain in the presence of a transverse field. These models are the Ising chain with anti-ferromagnetic long-range interactions that decay with distance r as 1 / r α , as well as a related class of fermionic Hamiltonians that generalize the Kitaev chain, where both the hopping and pairing terms are long-range and their relative strength can be varied. For these models, we provide the phase diagram for all exponents α , based on an analysis of the entanglement entropy, the decay of correlation functions, and the edge modes in the case of open chains. We demonstrate that violations of the area law can occur for α ≲ 1 , while connected correlation functions can decay with a hybrid exponential and power-law behavior, with a power that is α -dependent. Interestingly, for the fermionic models we provide an exact analytical derivation for the decay of the correlation functions at every α . Along the critical lines, for all models breaking of conformal symmetry is argued at low enough α . For the fermionic models we show that the edge modes, massless for α ≳ 1 , can acquire a mass for α < 1 . The mass of these modes can be tuned by varying the relative strength of the kinetic and pairing terms in the Hamiltonian. Interestingly, for the Ising chain a similar edge localization appears for the first and second excited states on the paramagnetic side of the phase diagram, where edge modes are not expected. We argue that, at least for the fermionic chains, these massive states correspond to the appearance of new phases, notably approached via quantum phase transitions without mass gap closure. Finally, we discuss the possibility to detect some of these effects in experiments with cold trapped ions.
In this study, we discuss a type of bulk-boundary correspondence, which holds for topological insulators and superconductors when the parity-time ( P T ) and/or parity-particle-hole ( P C ) symmetry are present. In these systems, even when the bulk topology is nontrivial, the edge spectrum is generally gapped, and thus the conventional bulk-boundary correspondence does not hold. We find that, instead of the edge spectrum, the single-particle entanglement spectrum becomes gapless when the bulk topology is nontrivial: i.e., the holds in P T - and/or P C -symmetric topological insulators and superconductors. After showing the correspondence using K -theoretic approach, we provide concrete models for each symmetry class up to three dimensions where nontrivial topology because of P T and/or P C is expected. An implication of our results is that, when the bulk topology under P T and/or P C symmetry is nontrivial, the noninteracting many-body entanglement spectrum is multiply degenerate in one dimension and is gapless in two or higher dimensions. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
The power-law profile of hopping and superconductivity introduces rich critical phenomena that are not possible to explore in the nearest-neighbor models. Having this in mind, we construct the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH)-Kitaev model with mono-, bi-, and tri-partite sub-lattices where superconductivity [hopping] is of power-law Kitaev [SSH] type. The long-range (LR) superconductivity can alone gap out the zero-momentum critical line while LR hopping alters the finite-momentum critical line. There exists open-ended critical line at vanishing superconducting gap on the phase diagram for all versions of the SSH-Kitaev model. Interestingly, LR superconductivity (hopping) promotes massive Dirac (Majorana zero) modes, while in a finite-size system, their emergence in open boundary conditions is caused by the bulk gap of the anti-periodic Hamiltonian in momentum space. This indicates an unconventional bulk-boundary correspondence for power-law models as compared to what is seen in the short-range models. Importantly, the thermodynamic phase boundaries are correctly reproduced by the above unconventional correspondence. Intriguingly, an even (odd) number of sub-lattices yields an integer (half-integer) winding number while the massive Dirac modes continue to survive irrespective of the sub-lattice profile as long as there exists LR pairing only.
Dramatically different from the Hermitian systems, the conventional bulk-boundary correspondence (BBC) is broken in the non-Hermitian systems. In this paper, we use edge entanglement entropy to characterize the topological properties of non-Hermitian Su-Schrieffer-Heeger Hubbard model. For free fermions, we study the scaling behavior of entanglement entropy and demonstrate that the edge entanglement entropy is a good indicator to delimit different phases of non-Hermitian systems. We further generalize the edge entanglement entropy to the non-Hermitian interacting Hubbard chain and obtain the topological phase diagram in the plane of interaction and non-Hermitian hopping amplitudes. It is found that the Hubbard interaction diminishes and weakens the breakdown of the bulk-boundary correspondence, which eventually disappears at some critical value of interaction.
Topological insulators and superconductors are subsets of (almost) noninteracting symmetry protected topological (SPT) phases. More generally, SPT phases represent equivalence classes of (equilibrium) gapped quantum states with short-range entanglement that are protected by certain symmetries. Two quantum states are “equivalent” if they can be adiabatically deformed into one another without closing the bulk gap. Thus, quantum states belonging to different SPT phases cannot be smoothly deformed into each other without a phase transition, as long as the underlying symmetry is preserved. However, upon removing the symmetry all SPT states can be adiabatically deformed to a trivial product state (e.g., an atomic insulator) without undergoing a phase transition. In this chapter, we generalize our discussion of (almost) noninteracting topological states by removing some of the explicit and implicit constraints underlying the classification and properties of topological insulators and superconductors discussed in Chapter 3 . In Section 4.1 , we enlarge the type of symmetries that protect the topological phases by supplementing internal symmetries (e.g., time-reversal and particle-hole symmetries) with crystalline symmetries (e.g., mirror and rotation symmetries) and discuss topological crystalline insulators and superconductors , a subsets of SPT phases protected by internal and crystalline symmetries. In Section 4.2 , we remove the requirement of having a finite (bulk) gap and discuss Weyl semimetals – crystalline systems characterized by topologically protected bulk band degeneracy points separated in momentum space, which support low energy excitations that are massless chiral fermions, i.e., Weyl fermions. Finally, in Section 4.3 , we remove the condition of thermodynamic equilibrium and consider topological quantum states in periodically driven systems, focusing on the so-called Floquet topological insulators , which exhibit a richer topological structure than their static counterparts. We note that aspects regarding the effects of particle-particle interactions, including the emergence of topological order in systems with long-range entanglement, will be addressed in Chapter 5 . We also point out that the areas summarized in this chapter have grown tremendously in recent years and continue to grow; even a brief mentioning of all recent developments would be impossible within the constraints of a book chapter. Instead, we point out the key elements that determine the nontrivial topology of the quantum systems mentioned above, discuss specific manifestations of their topological properties (e.g., the presence of protected gapless states), and provide representative examples.