Lattice model of three-dimensional topological singlet superconductor with time-reversal symmetry

We study topological phases of time-reversal invariant singlet superconductors in three spatial dimensions. In these particle-hole symmetric systems the topological phases are characterized by an even-numbered winding number $\nu$. At a two-dimensional (2D) surface the topological properties of this quantum state manifest themselves through the presence of $\nu$ flavors of gapless Dirac fermion surface states, which are robust against localization from random impurities. We construct a tight-binding model on the diamond lattice that realizes a topologically nontrivial phase, in which the winding number takes the value $\nu =\pm 2$. Disorder corresponds to a (non-localizing) random SU(2) gauge potential for the surface Dirac fermions, leading to a power-law density of states $\rho(\epsilon) \sim \epsilon^{1/7}$. The bulk effective field theory is proposed to be the (3+1) dimensional SU(2) Yang-Mills theory with a theta-term at $\theta=\pi$.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Topological quantum paramagnet in a quantum spin ladder

It has recently been found that bosonic excitations of ordered media, such as phonons or spinons, can exhibit topologically nontrivial band structures. Of particular interest are magnon and triplon excitations in quantum magnets, as they can easily be manipulated by an applied field. Here we study triplon excitations in an S=1/2 quantum spin ladder and show that they exhibit nontrivial topology, even in the quantum-disordered paramagnetic phase. Our analysis reveals that the paramagnetic phase actually consists of two separate regions with topologically distinct triplon excitations. We demonstrate that the topological transition between these two regions can be tuned by an external magnetic field. The winding number that characterizes the topology of the triplons is derived and evaluated. By the bulk-boundary correspondence, we find that the non-zero winding number implies the presence of localized triplon end states. Experimental signatures and possible physical realizations of the topological paramagnetic phase are discussed.Comment: 6+4 pages; References, footnotes, small clarification added in conclusions and suppl. mat (v2); Minor modifications, close to published version (v3

Renormalization group approach to symmetry protected topological phases

A defining feature of a symmetry protected topological phase (SPT) in one-dimension is the degeneracy of the Schmidt values for any given bipartition. For the system to go through a topological phase transition separating two SPTs, the Schmidt values must either split or cross at the critical point in order to change their degeneracies. A renormalization group (RG) approach based on this splitting or crossing is proposed, through which we obtain an RG flow that identifies the topological phase transitions in the parameter space. Our approach can be implemented numerically in an efficient manner, for example, using the matrix product state formalism, since only the largest first few Schmidt values need to be calculated with sufficient accuracy. Using several concrete models, we demonstrate that the critical points and fixed points of the RG flow coincide with the maxima and minima of the entanglement entropy, respectively, and the method can serve as a numerically efficient tool to analyze interacting SPTs in the parameter space.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure