On the K-theoretic classification of topological phases of matter

We present a rigorous and fully consistent $K$-theoretic framework for studying gapped topological phases of free fermions such as topological insulators. It utilises and profits from powerful techniques in operator $K$-theory. From the point of view of symmetries, especially those of time reversal, charge conjugation, and magnetic translations, operator $K$-theory is more general and natural than the commutative topological theory. Our approach is model-independent, and only the symmetry data of the dynamics, which may include information about disorder, is required. This data is completely encoded in a suitable $C^*$-superalgebra. From a representation-theoretic point of view, symmetry-compatible gapped phases are classified by the super-representation group of this symmetry algebra. Contrary to existing literature, we do not use $K$-theory to classify phases in an absolute sense, but only relative to some arbitrary reference. $K$-theory groups are better thought of as groups of obstructions between homotopy classes of gapped phases. Besides rectifying various inconsistencies in the existing literature on $K$-theory classification schemes, our treatment has conceptual simplicity in its treatment of all symmetries equally. The Periodic Table of Kitaev is exhibited as a special case within our framework, and we prove that the phenomena of periodicity and dimension shifts are robust against disorder and magnetic fields.Comment: 41 pages, revised version with a new abstract, introductory sections and critique of the literatur

Bell Correlations in Quantum Field Theory

Bell correlations are the hallmark of quantum non-locality, and a rich context for analysing them is provided by the algebraic approach to quantum field theory (AQFT): the basic idea is to associate with each bounded region O of Minkowski spacetime an algebra A(O) of operators, of which a self-adjoint element P ∈ A(O) represents a physical quantity pertaining to that part of the field system lying in O, that is measurable by a procedure confined to O. The violation of Bell inequalities in AQFT is known to be "generic", as regards the choices of regions O, and of quantities P, and of states. Furthermore, they are typically "maximal" and "indestructible" in a sense that can be made mathematically precise. The prospects for “peaceful coexistence” between quantum non-locality and relativity theory’s requirement of no action-at-a-distance are also explored. The purpose of this Essay is to review the developments in these areas

Degree of separability of bipartite quantum states

We investigate the problem of finding the optimal convex decomposition of a bipartite quantum state into a separable part and a positive remainder, in which the weight of the separable part is maximal. This weight is naturally identified with the degree of separability of the state. In a recent work, the problem was solved for two-qubit states using semidefinite programming. In this paper, we describe a procedure to obtain the optimal decomposition of a bipartite state of any finite dimension via a sequence of semidefinite relaxations. The sequence of decompositions thus obtained is shown to converge to the optimal one. This provides, for the first time, a systematic method to determine the so-called optimal Lewenstein-Sanpera decomposition of any bipartite state. Numerical results are provided to illustrate this procedure, and the special case of rank-2 states is also discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, submitted to PR

T-duality simplifies bulk-boundary correspondence: some higher dimensional cases

Recently we introduced T-duality in the study of topological insulators, and used it to show that T-duality trivialises the bulk-boundary correspondence in 2 dimensions. In this paper, we partially generalise these results to higher dimensions and briefly discuss the 4D quantum Hall effect.Comment: 25 pages. To appear in Ann. Henri Poincar