Topological phases of the two-leg Kitaev ladder

We study the phase diagram of the two-leg Kitaev model. Different topological phases can be characterized by either the number of Majorana modes for a deformed chain of the open ladder, or by a winding number related to the ‘h  -loop’ in the momentum space. By adding a three-spin interaction term to break the time-reversal symmetry, two originally different phases are glued together, so that the number of Majorana modes reduce to 0 or 1, namely, the topological invariant collapses to _Z2$Z_2$ from an integer Z. These observations are consistent with a recent general study [S. Tewari, J.D. Sau, arXiv:1111.6592v2].     

Topological phase diagram of a Kitaev ladder

We investigate the topological properties of a Kitaev ladder, i.e., a system made of two Kitaev chains coupled together by transversal hopping and pairing term, t₁ and Δ₁, respectively. Using the Chern number invariant, we present the topological phase diagram of the system. It is shown that beyond a non-topological phase, the system exhibits a topological phase either with four or two Majorana (zero energy) modes. In particular, we find that for some critical values of the transversal hopping t₁, and at a given transversal paring Δ₁, the topological phase survives also when the Kitaev criterion for the single chain (Δ > 0,   |μ| < 2t) is violated. Using a tight-binding analysis for a finite-size system we numerically check the bulk-edge correspondence.     

Topological phase boundary in a generalized Kitaev model

We study the effects of the next-nearest-neighbor hopping and nearest-neighbor interactions on topological phases in a one-dimensional generalized Kitaev model. In the noninteracting case, we define a topological number and calculate exactly the phase diagram of the system. With addition of the next-nearest-neighbor hopping, the change of phase boundary between the topological and trivial regions can be described by an effective shift of the chemical potential. In the interacting case, we obtain the entanglement spectrum, the degeneracies of which correspond to the topological edge modes, by using the infinite time-evolving block decimation method. The results show that the interactions change the phase boundary as adding an effective chemical potential which can be explained by the change of the average number of particles.     

Topological Invariants in Braid Theory

Many invariants of knots and links have their counterparts in braid theory. Often, these invariants are most easily calculated using braids. A braid is a set of n strings stretching between two parallel planes. This review demonstrates how integrals over the braid path can yield topological invariants. The simplest such invariant is the winding number – the net number of times two strings in a braid wrap about each other. But other, higher-order invariants exist. The mathematical literature on these invariants usually employs techniques from algebraic topology that may be unfamiliar to physicists and mathematicians in other disciplines. The primary goal of this paper is to introduce higher-order invariants using only elementary differential geometry.Some of the higher-order quantities can be found directly by searching for closed one-forms. However, the Kontsevich integral provides a more general route. This integral gives a formal sum of all finite order topological invariants. We describe the Kontsevich integral, and prove that it is invariant to deformations of the braid.Some of the higher-order invariants can be used to generate Hamiltonian dynamics of n particles in the plane. The invariants are expressed as complex numbers; but only the real part gives interesting topological information. Rather than ignoring the imaginary part, we can use it as a Hamiltonian. For n = 2, this will be the Hamiltonian for point vortex motion in the plane. The Hamiltonian for n = 3 generates more complicated motions.     

Topological phase transition in a ladder of the dimerized Kitaev superconductor chains

We investigate the topological properties of a ladder model of the dimerized Kitaev superconductor chains.The topological class of the system is determined by the relative phase θ between the inter-and intra-chain superconducting pairing.One topological class is the class BDI characterized by the Z index,and the other is the class D characterized by the Z_2 index.For the two different topological classes,the topological phase diagrams of the system are presented by calculating two different topological numbers,i.e.,the Z index winding number W and the Z_2 index Majorana number M,respectively.In the case of θ=0,the topological class belongs to the class BDI,multiple topological phase transitions accompanying the variation of the number of Majorana zero modes are observed.In the case of θ = π/2 it belongs to the class D.Our results show that for the given value of dimerization,the topologically nontrivial and trivial phases alternate with the variation of chemical potential.     

Topological phase diagrams and Majorana zero modes of the Kitaev ladder and tube

In this paper,we study two quasi-one-dimensional(1 D) Kitaev models with ladder-like and tube-like spatial structures,respectively.Our results provide the phase diagrams and explicit expressions of the Majorana zero modes.The topological phase diagrams are obtained by decomposing the topological invariants and the topological conditions for topologically nontrivial phases are given precisely.For systems which belongs to topological class BDI,we obtain the regions in the phase diagrams where the topological numbers show even-odd effect.For the Kitaev tube model a phase factor induced by the magnetic flux in the axial direction of the tube is introduced to alter the classification of the tube Hamiltonian from class BDI to D.The Kitaev tube of class D is characterized by the Z_2 index when the number of chains is odd while 0,1,2 when the number of chains is even.The phase diagrams show periodic behaviors with respect to the magnetic flux.The bulk-boundary correspondence is demonstrated by the observations that the topological conditions for the bulk topological invariant to take nontrivial values are precisely those for the existence of the Majorana zero modes.     

Topological Invariants of Edge States for Periodic Two-Dimensional Models

Transfer matrix methods and intersection theory are used to calculate the bands of edge states for a wide class of periodic two-dimensional tight-binding models including a sublattice and spin degree of freedom. This allows to define topological invariants by considering the associated Bott–Maslov indices which can be easily calculated numerically. For time-reversal symmetric systems in the symplectic universality class this leads to a ${\mathbb Z}_2$ -invariant for the edge states. It is shown that the edge state invariants are related to Chern numbers of the bulk systems and also to (spin) edge currents, in the spirit of the theory of topological insulators.     

Topological Invariants for Lens Spaces and Exceptional Quantum Groups

The Reshetikhin–Turaev invariants arising from the quantum groups associated with the exceptional Lie algebras G2, F4 and E8 at odd roots of unity are constructed and explicitly computed for all the lens spaces.     

Topological Boundary Invariants for Floquet Systems and Quantum Walks

A Floquet systems is a periodically driven quantum system. It can be described by a Floquet operator. If this unitary operator has a gap in the spectrum, then one can define associated topological bulk invariants which can either only depend on the bands of the Floquet operator or also on the time as a variable. It is shown how a K-theoretic result combined with the bulk-boundary correspondence leads to edge invariants for the half-space Floquet operators. These results also apply to topological quantum walks.     

Topological Phase Transition and Phase Diagrams in a Two-Leg Kitaev Ladder System

A scheme to investigate the topological properties in a two-leg Kitaev ladder system composed of two Kitaev chains is proposed. In the case of two identical Kitaev chains, it is found that the interchain hopping amplitude plays a significant role in the separation of the energy spectrum and in inducing a topologically nontrivial phase, while the interchain pairing strength only affects the size of the energy gap. Moreover, another situation that the system consists of two non-identical Kitaev chains is also investigated and the corresponding phase diagram is calculated. It is found that two pairs of degenerate nonzero edge modes will, respectively, appear in the upper and lower energy gaps when the interchain hopping amplitude or the interchain pairing strength is large enough. Furthermore, it is pointed out that the winding number is quantitatively equivalent to half of the number of zero energy edge modes in our system.     

Lattice Green's Function for the Diamond Lattice

An expression for the Green's function (GF) of diamond lattice is evaluated analytically and numerically for a single impurity interacting with the first nearest-neighboring host atoms. The density of states (DOS), phase shift and scattering cross-section are expressed in terms of complete elliptic integrals of the first kind.     

Lattice Green's Function for the Body-Centered Cubic Lattice

An expression for the Green's function (GF) of Body-Centered Cubic (BCC) lattice is evaluated analytically and numerically for a single impurity lattice. The density of states (DOS), phase shift, and scattering cross section are expressed in terms of complete elliptic integrals of the first kind.     

Effect of Interaction on the Majorana Zero Modes in the Kitaev Chain at Half Filling

The one-dimensional interacting Kitaev chain at half filling is studied. The symmetry of the Hamiltonian is examined by dual transformations, and various physical quantities as a function of the fermion-fermion interaction U are calculated systematically using the density matrix renormalization group method. A special value of interaction Up is revealed in the topological region of the phase diagram. We show that at Up the ground states are strictly two-fold degenerate even though the chain length is finite and the zero-energy peak due to the Majorana zero modes is maximally enhanced and exactly localized at the end sites. Here Up may be attractive or repulsive depending on other system parameters. We also give a qualitative understanding of the effect of interaction under the self-consistent mean field framework.     

State-Dependent Topological Invariants and Anomalous Bulk-Boundary Correspondence in Non-Hermitian Topological Systems with Generalized Inversion Symmetry

Breakdown of bulk-boundary correspondence in non-Hermitian(NH) topological systems with generalized inversion symmetries is a controversial issue. The non-Bloch topological invariants determine the existence of edge states, but fail to describe the number and distribution of defective edge states in non-Hermitian topological systems. The state-dependent topological invariants, instead of a global topological invariant, are developed to accurately characterize the bulk-boundary correspondence of ...     

The Development of the Green's Function for the Boltzmann Equation

We review the particle-like and wave-like property of the Boltzmann equation. This property leads to a sequence of developments on the mathematical theory of the Green's function for the Boltzmann equation.     

Lattice Green's Function for the Face Centered Cubic Lattice

An expression for the Green's function (GF) of face centered cubic (FCC) lattice is evaluated analytically and numerically for a single impurity problem. The density of states (DOS), phase shift and scattering cross section are expressed in terms of complete elliptic integrals of the first kind.     

Lattice Green's Function for the Face Centered Cubic Lattice

An expression for the Green's function (GF) of face centered cubic (FCC) lattice is evaluated analytically and numerically for a single impurity problem. The density of states (DOS), phase shift and scattering cross section are expressed in terms of complete elliptic integrals of the first kind.     

Discrete Green's Function for Lattice Random Walk

A lattice random walk model based on particles scattering on discrete lattice of homogenous space is introduced. The discrete Green's function (DFG) for two-dimensional and three-dimensional lattice random walk of photon is found and proved by mathematical induction. The convolution theorem of photon lattice random walk is presented. They can be used with the method of images to calculate the photon density distribution in semi-infinite and finite slab homogenous turbid media such as tissue.