English

Quantized single-particle Thouless pump induced by topology transfer from a Chern insulator at finite temperature

Quantum Physics 2021-10-26 v1

Abstract

Quantized particle or spin transport upon cyclic parameter variations, determined by topological invariants, is a key signature of Chern insulators in the ground state. While measurable many-body observables exist that preserve the integrity of topological invariants also at finite temperature, quantized transport is generically lost. We here show that a coupling of a one-dimensional Chern insulator at arbitrary finite temperature to an auxiliary lattice can induce quantized transport determined by the finite-temperature invariant. We show for the example of a Rice-Mele model that the spatial distribution of a single particle in the auxiliary chain moves by a quantized number of unit cells in a Thouless cycle when subtracting a spatially homogeneous offset even at a temperature exceeding the band gap.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2110.12280,
  title  = {Quantized single-particle Thouless pump induced by topology transfer from a Chern insulator at finite temperature},
  author = {Lukas Wawer and Razmik Unanyan and Michael Fleischhauer},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2110.12280},
  year   = {2021}
}