Mode-Shell correspondence, a unifying phase space theory in topological physics -- part II: Higher-dimensional spectral invariants
Abstract
The mode-shell correspondence relates the number of gapless modes in phase space to a topological \textit{shell invariant} defined on a close surface -- the shell -- surrounding those modes, namely . In part I, we introduced the mode-shell correspondence for zero-modes of chiral symmetric Hamiltonians (class AIII). In this part II, we extend the correspondence to arbitrary dimension and to both symmetry classes A and AIII. This allows us to include, in particular, -unidirectional edge modes of Chern insulators, massless -Dirac and -Weyl cones, within the same formalism. We provide an expression of that only depends on the dimension of the dispersion relation of the gapless mode, and does not require a translation invariance. Then, we show that the topology of the shell (a circle, a sphere, a torus), that must account for the spreading of the gapless mode in phase space, yields specific expressions of the shell index. Semi-classical expressions of those shell indices are also derived and reduce to either Chern or winding numbers depending on the parity of the mode's dimension. In that way, the mode-shell correspondence provides a unified and systematic topological description of both bulk and boundary gapless modes in any dimension, and in particular includes the bulk-boundary correspondence. We illustrate the generality of the theory by analyzing several models of semimetals and insulators, both on lattices and in the continuum, and also discuss weak and higher-order topological phases within this framework. Although this paper is a continuation of Part I, the content remains sufficiently independent to be mostly read separately.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2501.13550,
title = {Mode-Shell correspondence, a unifying phase space theory in topological physics -- part II: Higher-dimensional spectral invariants},
author = {Lucien Jezequel and Pierre Delplace},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.13550},
year = {2025}
}