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arXiv:2501.02883 · Communications Physics

Fibonacci-modulation-induced multiple topological Anderson insulators

Ruijiang Ji, Zhihao Xu

Published Aug 16, 2025• 7 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Topological Anderson insulators (TAIs) provide a mechanism for topological phase transitions in disordered systems and have implications for quantum material design. In this work, we investigate the emergence of multiple TAIs in a one-dimensional spin-orbit coupled (SOC) chain subject to Fibonacci modulation, which transforms a trivial band structure into a sequence of topologically nontrivial phases. This behavior is characterized by the appearance of zero-energy modes and changes in the Z2 topological quantum number. As the SOC amplitude decreases, the number of TAI phases increases, a feature that is closely related to the fractal structure of the energy spectrum induced by Fibonacci modulation. In contrast to conventional TAI phases with fully localized eigenstates, the wave functions in the Fibonacci-modulated TAI phases display multifractal properties. This model can be experimentally realized using a Bose-Einstein condensate in a momentum-space lattice, where its topological transitions and multifractal features can be explored through quench dynamics. Topological Anderson insulators are quantum phases that can arise in disordered systems and are of interest for both fundamental research and future materials. Here, the authors show that applying Fibonacci modulation to a 1D spin-orbit coupled chain generates multiple topological Anderson insulator phases with multifractal wave functions, which may be observed experimentally in cold atom setups

DOI
10.1038/s42005-025-02264-1

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Topological Anderson insulators (TAIs) provide a mechanism for topological phase transitions in disordered systems and have implications for quantum material design. In this work, we investigate the emergence of multiple TAIs in a one-dimensional spin-orbit coupled (SOC) chain subject to Fibonacci modulation, which transforms a trivial band structure into a sequence of topologically nontrivial phases. This behavior is characterized by the appearance of zero-energy modes and changes in the Z2 topological quantum number. As the SOC amplitude decreases, the number of TAI phases increases, a feature that is closely related to the fractal structure of the energy spectrum induced by Fibonacci modulation. In contrast to conventional TAI phases with fully localized eigenstates, the wave functions in the Fibonacci-modulated TAI phases display multifractal properties. This model can be experimentally realized using a Bose-Einstein condensate in a momentum-space lattice, where its topological transitions and multifractal features can be explored through quench dynamics. Topological Anderson insulators are quantum phases that can arise in disordered systems and are of interest for both fundamental research and future materials. Here, the authors show that applying Fibonacci modulation to a 1D spin-orbit coupled chain generates multiple topological Anderson insulator phases with multifractal wave functions, which may be observed experimentally in cold atom setups
The topological phase transitions and localization properties in a 1D p-wave superconductor under Fibonacci quasi-periodic potential modulation are investigated in this work. By calculating the Z2 topological invariant, the topological phase diagram of the system is determined numerically. It is found that the system can transition from a topologically trivial phase to a topological Anderson superconductor phase through the Fibonacci quasi-periodic modulation. Moreover, under certain parameters, the system undergoes multiple topological Anderson superconductor phase transitions, accompanied by the emergence of zero-energy modes. However, in the case of strong disorder, the topological Anderson superconductor phase is destroyed, indicating that the topological Anderson superconductor phase can be induced only within a finite range of parameters. Furthermore, by calculating and analyzing the fractal dimension and the mean inverse participation ratio (MIPR) order parameter, the localization properties of the system are analyzed. The results show that regardless of how the disorder intensity increases, the fractal dimension values of most eigenstates always remain within a range of 0–1. Subsequently, the variations in the fractal dimensions of all eigenstates for different system sizes are studied. The results show that the fractal dimension values of most eigenstates are away from 0 and 1. These results indicate that the wavefunction in the bulk of the topological Anderson superconductor phase induced by Fibonacci quasi-periodic potential is a critical state wavefunction, with the system overall being in a critical phase. The stability of the critical phase is confirmed by scale behavior of MIPR as shown in figure. It differs from the traditional topological Anderson superconductor phase induced by random disorder or AA-type quasi-periodic disorder. The results provide new insights into and references for studying topological phase transitions and localization transitions in 1D p-wave superconductors.
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We study the topological properties of a one-dimensional quasiperiodic-potential-modulated mosaic trimer lattice. To begin with, we first investigate the topological properties of the model in the clean limit free of quasiperiodic disorder based on analytical derivation and numerical calculations of the Zak phase ZZZ and the polarization PPP. Two nontrivial topological phases corresponding to the 1/31/31/3 filling and 2/32/32/3 filling, respectively, are revealed. Then we incorporate the mosaic modulation and investigate the influence of quasiperiodic disorder on the two existing topological phases. Interestingly, it turns out that quasiperiodic disorder gives rise to multiple distinct effects for different fillings. At 2/32/32/3 filling, the topological phase is significantly enhanced by the quasiperiodic disorder and topological Anderson insulator emerges. Based on the calculations of polarization and energy gap, we explicitly present corresponding topological phase diagram in the λ−Jλ-Jλ−J plane. While for the 1/31/31/3 filling case, % the topological phase is dramatically suppressed by the same quasiperiodic disorder. the quasiperiodic disorder dramatically compresses the topological phase, and strikingly, further induces the emergence of reentrant topological phase transitions instead. Furthermore, we verify the topological phase diagrams by computing the many-body ground state fidelity susceptibility for both the 1/31/31/3 filling and 2/32/32/3 filling cases. Our work exemplifies the diverse roles of quasiperiodic disorder in the modulation of topological properties, and will further inspire more research on the competitive and cooperative interplay between topological properties and quasiperiodic disorder.
Nontrivial geometry of electronic Bloch states gives rise to topological insulators which are robust against sufficiently weak randomness inevitably present in any quantum material. However, increasing disorder triggers a quantum phase transition into a featureless normal insulator. As the underlying quantum critical point is approached from the topological side, small scattered droplets of normal insulators start to develop in the system and their coherent nucleation causes ultimate condensation into a trivial insulator. Unless disorder is too strong, the normal insulator accommodates disjoint tiny topological puddles. Furthermore, in the close vicinity of such a transition the emergent islands of topological and trivial insulators display spatial fractal structures, a feature that is revealed only by local topological markers. Here, we showcase this (possibly) generic phenomenon that should be apposite to dirty topological crystals of any symmetry class in any dimension from the Bott index and local Chern marker for a square-lattice-based disordered Chern insulator model.