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arXiv:2610.13250

Zak Phase Quantization without Global Symmetry through Destructive Interference

Geonwoo Hwang, Jun-Won Rhim

quant-phcond-mat.str-elSubmitted Oct 9, 2026• Announced Oct 12, 2026
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Abstract

The Zak phase provides a fundamental geometric characterization of one-dimensional band structures and, when quantized by symmetry, serves as a bulk indicator of polarization and boundary phenomena. Conventionally, its exact quantization is tied to a global symmetry of the Bloch Hamiltonian, such as inversion or reflection symmetry. Here, we demonstrate a distinct mechanism by which the Zak phase remains exactly quantized even when the corresponding protecting symmetry is explicitly broken at the level of the full Hamiltonian. The mechanism is based on local support symmetry and destructive interference: symmetry-breaking degrees of freedom are coupled to a topological parent system in such a way that the relevant Bloch states cannot leak into them. The preserved states therefore retain their parent wave functions and inherit their quantized Zak phase exactly, despite the absence of the protecting global symmetry. We establish this mechanism for general one-dimensional insulators and demonstrate it in an inversion-broken minimal model and a reflection-broken armchair nanoribbon, where a quantized $π$ Zak phase and associated boundary-localized states persist. We further show that perturbations violating the exact destructive-interference condition continuously dequantize the Zak phase, while a finite regime with a near-$π$ Zak phase and boundary response can survive. Our results establish wave-function support, rather than global symmetry alone, as a mechanism for protecting quantized quantum geometry in one-dimensional systems.

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The Zak phase provides a fundamental geometric characterization of one-dimensional band structures and, when quantized by symmetry, serves as a bulk indicator of polarization and boundary phenomena. Conventionally, its exact quantization is tied to a global symmetry of the Bloch Hamiltonian, such as inversion or reflection symmetry. Here, we demonstrate a distinct mechanism by which the Zak phase remains exactly quantized even when the corresponding protecting symmetry is explicitly broken at the level of the full Hamiltonian. The mechanism is based on local support symmetry and destructive interference: symmetry-breaking degrees of freedom are coupled to a topological parent system in such a way that the relevant Bloch states cannot leak into them. The preserved states therefore retain their parent wave functions and inherit their quantized Zak phase exactly, despite the absence of the protecting global symmetry. We establish this mechanism for general one-dimensional insulators and demonstrate it in an inversion-broken minimal model and a reflection-broken armchair nanoribbon, where a quantized πππ Zak phase and associated boundary-localized states persist. We further show that perturbations violating the exact destructive-interference condition continuously dequantize the Zak phase, while a finite regime with a near-πππ Zak phase and boundary response can survive. Our results establish wave-function support, rather than global symmetry alone, as a mechanism for protecting quantized quantum geometry in one-dimensional systems.
In the presence of symmetries, one-dimensional quantum systems can exhibit topological order, which in many cases can be characterized by a quantized value of the many-body geometric Zak or Berry phase. We establish that this topological Zak phase is directly related to the Zak phase of an elementary quasiparticle excitation in the system. By considering various systems, we establish this connection for a number of different interacting phases including the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model, ppp-wave topological superconductors, and the Haldane chain. Crucially, in contrast to the bulk many-body Zak phase associated with the ground state of such systems, the topological invariant associated with quasiparticle excitations (above this ground state) exhibits a more natural route for direct experimental detection. To this end, we build upon recent work [F. Grusdt, et al., Nat. Commun. 7, 11994 (2016)] and demonstrate that mobile quantum impurities can be used, in combination with Ramsey interferometry and Bloch oscillations, to directly measure these quasiparticle topological invariants. Finally, a concrete experimental realization of our protocol for dimerized Mott insulators in ultracold atomic systems is discussed and analyzed.
Symmetry plays a crucial role in understanding topological phases in materials. In one-dimensional systems, such as the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model, chiral symmetry is thought to ensure the quantization of the Zak phase and the nontrivial topological phase. However, our work demonstrates that the one-dimensional lattice system with broken chiral symmetry can still possess quantized Zak phase and nontrivial topological phase. Specifically, we use a Bose-Einstein condensate of 87Rb atoms in a momentum space lattice of ultracold atoms to effectively simulate a one-dimensional Zigzag model of 26 sites, which intrinsically breaks the chiral symmetry by additional next-nearest-neighbor coupling. To ensure the existence of the nontrivial topological phase, where the Zak phase can be measured from the time-averaged displacement during the system’s evolution, we need to preserve the inversion symmetry by modulating laser power so that all next-nearest-neighbor coupling strengths are equal. Furthermore, by changing the ratio of nearest-neighbor coupling strengths, we observe a topological phase transition from a nontrivial topological phase to a trivial topological phase at the point where the ratio equals 1. Our work demonstrates that the ultracold atom system provides a controllable platform for studying the symmetrical phase and topological phase, with the potential to explore nonlinear topological phenomena by increasing the interactions among atoms. In addition, our system can be used to investigate other interesting topological phenomena with more complex models, such as critical phenomena at the phase transitions and flat band structures in the extended SSH model with long-range coupling. By controlling the coupling strengths, we can also explore the influence of different symmetries on the topological properties of extended SSH models in the future. Moreover, our platform makes it possible to studythe models with more energy bands, such as the Aharonov-Bohm caging model with a three-level structure, which shows peculiar flat-band properties. This work provides opportunities for various studies in the fields of symmetry, topology, and the interaction of controllable quantum systems.
Quantum anomalies arise when symmetries of a classical theory cannot be preserved upon quantization, leading to unconventional topological responses. A prominent example is the parity anomaly of a single two-dimensional Dirac fermion, which enforces a half-quantized Hall response. Anomaly inflow mechanism allows this effect to be observed at the surfaces of three-dimensional topological insulators, however, its realization in a genuinely two-dimensional system has remained elusive. Here we report the observation of a parity-anomalous Hall response at the critical point of a quantum Hall topological phase transition in a synthetic two-dimensional system of ultracold dysprosium atoms. By coupling a continuous spatial dimension to a finite synthetic dimension encoded in atomic spin states, we engineer tunable Chern bands with C = 0 and 1. At the transition, the bulk gap closes at a single Dirac point, where we observe a robust half-quantized Hall drift despite strong non-adiabatic excitations. We show that this response originates from the global structure of the band topology, is protected by an emergent parity symmetry at criticality, and disappears when parity is explicitly broken. Our work establishes synthetic quantum systems as a powerful platform to probe quantum anomalies and their interplay with topology and non-equilibrium dynamics.
Three dimensional topological insulator represents a class of novel quantum phases hosting robust gapless boundary excitations, which is protected by global symmetries such as time reversal, charge conservation and spin rotational symmetry. In this work we systematically study another class of topological phases of weakly interacting electrons protected by spatial inversion symmetry, which generally don't support stable gapless boundary states. We classify these inversion-symmetric topological insulators and superconductors in the framework of K-theory, and construct their lattice models. We also discuss quantized response functions of these inversion-protected topological phases, which serve as their experimental signatures.
Topological band insulators are usually characterized by symmetry-protected surface modes or quantized linear-response functions (like Hall conductance). Here we present a way to characterize them based on certain bulk properties of just the ground-state wave function, specifically, the properties of its entanglement spectrum. We prove that whenever protected surface states exist, a corresponding protected ``mode'' exists in the entanglement spectrum as well. Besides this, the entanglement spectrum sometimes succeeds better at indicating topological phases than surface states. We discuss specifically the example of insulators with inversion symmetry which is found to act as an antiunitary symmetry on the entanglement spectrum. A Kramers degeneracy can then arise even when time-reversal symmetry is absent. This degeneracy persists for interacting systems. The entanglement spectrum is therefore a promising tool to characterize topological band insulators and superconductors beyond the free-particle approximation.
We introduce a classification of symmetry-protected topological phases applicable to stationary states of open systems based on a generalization of the many-body polarization. The polarization can be used to probe topological properties of noninteracting and interacting closed and open systems and remains a meaningful quantity even in the presence of moderate particle-number fluctuations. As examples, we discuss two open-system versions of a topological Thouless pump in the steady state of one-dimensional lattices driven by Markovian reservoirs. In an analogous unitary system, the Su-Shrieffer-Heeger model, symmetries enforce a quantization of the geometric Zak phase, which acts as a topological invariant. Introducing a further degree of freedom, a nontrivial winding of the phase can be observed upon cyclic variations of parameters. Associated with this is a quantization or, respectively, a winding of the polarization corresponding to a quantized transport (Thouless pump). We here show that in the open system, where the Zak phase loses its meaning, the same symmetries enforce a quantization and more generally a winding of the generalized many-body polarization. These features are shown to be robust against Hamiltonian perturbations as well as homogeneous dephasing and particle losses.