We use the Lindblad equation approach to investigate topological phases hosting more than one localized state at each side of a disordered Su-Schrieffer-Heeger chain with properly tuned long-range hoppings. Inducing a nonequilibrium steady state across the chain, we probe the robustness of each phase and the fate of the edge modes looking at the distribution of electrons along the chain and the corresponding standard deviation in the presence of different kinds of disorder either preserving the symmetries of the Hamiltonian or not.
Entanglement entropy (EE) provides a powerful probe of quantum phases, yet its role in identifying topological phase transitions in disordered systems remains underexplored. We introduce an exact EE-based framework that captures topological phase transitions even in the presence of disorder. Specifically, for a class of Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model variants, we show that the difference in EE between half-filled and near-half-filled ground states,ΔSA, vanishes in the topological phase but remains finite in the trivial phase, a direct consequence of edge-state localization. This behavior persists even in the presence of quasiperiodic or binary disorder. By analyzing domain-wall configurations in the SSH chain, we further show how subsystem tuning allows one to distinguish genuine topological zero-energy eigenstates from trivial localized states. Exact phase boundaries, derived from Lyapunov exponents via transfer matrices, agree closely with numerical results fromΔSAand the topological invariant𝓠, with instances whereΔSAoutperforms𝓠. Our results highlight EE as a robust diagnostic tool and a potential bridge between quantum information and condensed matter approaches to topological matter.
A dimerized fermion chain, described by Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model, is a well-known example of a one-dimensional system with a nontrivial band topology. An interplay of disorder and topological ordering in the SSH model is of great interest owing to experimental advancements in synthesized quantum simulators. In this paper, we investigate a special sort of a disorder when intercell hopping amplitudes are random. Using a definition for
Z2-topological invariant $\ensuremath{\nu}\ensuremath{\in}{0;1}$ in terms of a non-Hermitian part of the total Hamiltonian, we calculate $\ensuremath{\langle}\ensuremath{\nu}\ensuremath{\rangle}$ averaged by random realizations. This allows to find: (i) an analytical form of the critical surface that separates phases of distinct topological orders and (ii) finite-size fluctuations of $\ensuremath{\nu}$ for arbitrary disorder strength. Numerical simulations of the edge modes formation and gap suppression at the transition are provided for the finite-size system. In the end, we discuss a band-touching condition derived within the averaged Green's function method for a thermodynamic limit.
We study the interplay of spontaneous symmetry breaking and topological properties in interacting one-dimensional models. We solve these models using bozonization and identify topologically non-trivial phases by counting the additional degeneracy (affiliated with the edge modes) of a finite-size system relative to the infinite one. We find even if the mean-field solution is topological, this may not be true when it arises from spontaneous symmetry breaking, including in the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model. This implies that the original SSH model, as presented by Su, Schrieffer, and Heeger, is topologically trivial, as opposed to its mean-field version. A spinful version, on the other hand, does exhibit a topologically non-trivial phase. In that state, both mean-field solutions are topologically non-trivial and correspond to non-interacting SSH chains in the opposite phases with the winding number
ν=1. We show that this phase is protected by a chiral symmetry, similar to the non-interacting phases.
The long-range Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model, in which the second nearest-neighbor hopping is taken into account, exhibits a topological phase diagram that contains winding numbers
w=0,1, and 2. In the clean system, the change in winding number stems from the band-touching phenomenon. In the presence of disorder, the renormalization of energy band and Fermi level results in the nonzero density of states in the energy gap. These midgap states cause the crossover phenomenon and the divergence of localization length at a critical disorder strength
Uc in the finite SSH system. In this study, we numerically computed the mean winding number and localization length for the disordered SSH system. We find that the disorder is able to drive phase transitions between different mean winding numbers: $w=0\ensuremath{\rightarrow}1$, $0\ensuremath{\rightarrow}2$, $1\ensuremath{\rightarrow}2$, and $2\ensuremath{\rightarrow}1$ in the weak disorder regime. By investigating the wave function distribution and the self-energy, the nonzero mean winding numbers correspond to the so-called topological Anderson insulating (TAI) phases. The finite size scaling for the mean winding number in the TAI phase is shown. For describing the phase transitions in the thermodynamic limit, we apply the criterion of band gap closure resulting from the broadening of energy band and Fermi level to determine the critical disorder strength. The critical disorder strength for self-consistent Born approximation (SCBA)
UcSCBA and that for first Born approximation (FBA)
UcFBA are numerically calculated.
UcSCBA is found to match with
Uc qualitatively. Nonetheless, SCBA indicates the different roles of band shifts and Fermi level broadening near the topological phase transitions. Band shift/Fermi level broadening is more dominant for the transitions from low-to-high/high-to-low winding number. Interestingly, for the transition from bulk insulator to TAI,
UcFBA is quantitatively closer to
Uc than
UcSCBA as long as the renormalized band gap is zero within FBA.
The topological properties of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model in the presence of nearest-neighbor interaction are investigated by means of a topological marker, generalized from a noninteracting one by utilizing the single-particle Green's function of the many-body ground state. We find that despite the marker not being perfectly quantized in the presence of interactions, it always remains finite in the topologically nontrivial phase while converging to zero in the trivial phase when approaching the thermodynamic limit, and hence correctly judges the topological phases in the presence of interactions. The marker also correctly captures the interaction-driven, second-order phase transitions between a topological phase and a Landau-ordered phase, which is a charge-density wave order in our model with a local-order parameter, as confirmed by the calculation of entanglement entropy and the many-body Zak phase. Our paper thus points to the possibility of generalizing topological markers to interacting systems through Green's function, which may be feasible for topological insulators in any dimension and symmetry class.