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1. Chiral and counter-propagating Majorana fermions in a p-wave superconductor

   https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ab5cad  

   Hu, Haiping; Satija, Indubala I.; Zhao, Erhai (December 2019, New Journal of Physics)

   Abstract Chiral and helical Majorana fermions are two archetypal edge excitations in two-dimensional topological superconductors. They emerge from systems of different Altland–Zirnbauer symmetries and characterized by $\mathbb{Z}$and ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$topological invariants respectively. It seems improbable to tune a pair of co-propagating chiral edge modes to counter-propagate in a single system without symmetry breaking. Here, we explore the peculiar behaviors of Majorana edge modes in topological superconductors with an additional ‘mirror’ symmetry which changes the bulk topological invariant to $\mathbb{Z}\oplus \mathbb{Z}$type. A theoretical toy model describing the proximity structure of a Chern insulator and ap_x-wave superconductor is proposed and solved analytically to illustrate a direct transition between two topologically nontrivial phases. The weak pairing phase has two chiral Majorana edge modes, while the strong pairing phase is characterized by mirror-graded Chern number and hosts a pair of counter-propagating Majorana fermions protected by the mirror symmetry. The edge theory is worked out in detail, and implications to braiding of Majorana fermions are discussed. 

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2. A C*-algebraic view on the interaction of real- and reciprocal space topology in skyrmion crystals

   https://doi.org/10.21468/SciPostPhysCore.7.4.080  

   Prass, Pascal; Lux, Fabian; Prodan, Emil; van_Straten, Duco; Mokrousov, Yuriy (January 2024, SciPost Physics Core)

   Understanding the interaction of real- and reciprocal space topology in skyrmion crystals is an open problem. We approach it from the viewpoint ofC^\ast $C^{*}$-algebras and calculate all admissible Chern numbers of a strongly coupled tight-binding skyrmion system on a triangular lattice as a function of Fermi energy and texture parameters. Our analysis reveals the topological complexity of electronic states coupled to spin textures, and the failure of the adiabatic picture to account for it in terms of emergent electromagnetism. On the contrary, we explain the discontinuous jumps in the real-space winding number in terms of collective evolution in real-, reciprocal, and mixed space Chern numbers. Our work sets the stage for further research on topological dynamics in complex dynamic spin textures coupled to external fields. 

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3. Partons as unique ground states of quantum Hall parent Hamiltonians: The case of Fibonacci anyons

   https://doi.org/10.21468/SciPostPhys.15.2.043  

   Tanhayi Ahari, Mostafa; Bandyopadhyay, Sumanta; Nussinov, Zohar; Seidel, Alexander; Ortiz, Gerardo (January 2023, SciPost Physics)

   We present microscopic, multiple Landau level, (frustration-free and positive semi-definite) parent Hamiltonians whose ground states, realizing different quantum Hall fluids, are parton-like and whose excitations display either Abelian or non-Abelian braiding statistics. We prove ground state energy monotonicity theorems for systems with different particle numbers in multiple Landau levels, demonstrate S-duality in the case of toroidal geometry, and establish complete sets of zero modes of special Hamiltonians stabilizing parton-like states, specifically at filling factor\nu=2/3 $\nu =2/3$. The emergent Entangled Pauli Principle (EPP), introduced in [Phys. Rev. B 98, 161118(R) (2018)] and which defines the “DNA” of the quantum Hall fluid, is behind the exact determination of the topological characteristics of the fluid, including charge and braiding statistics of excitations, and effective edge theory descriptions. When the closed-shell condition is satisfied, the densest (i.e., the highest density and lowest total angular momentum) zero-energy mode is a unique parton state. We conjecture that parton-like states generally span the subspace of many-body wave functions with the two-bodyM $M$-clustering property within any given number of Landau levels, that is, wave functions withM $M$th-order coincidence plane zeroes and both holomorphic and anti-holomorphic dependence on variables. General arguments are supplemented by rigorous considerations for theM=3 $M=3$case of fermions in four Landau levels. For this case, we establish that the zero mode counting can be done by enumerating certain patterns consistent with an underlying EPP. We apply the coherent state approach of [Phys. Rev. X 1, 021015 (2011)] to show that the elementary (localized) bulk excitations are Fibonacci anyons. This demonstrates that the DNA associated with fractional quantum Hall states encodes all universal properties. Specifically, for parton-like states, we establish a link with tensor network structures of finite bond dimension that emerge via root level entanglement. 

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4. Quantum interference in superposed lattices

   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2315787121  

   Feng, Yejun; Wang, Yishu; Rosenbaum, T. F.; Littlewood, P. B.; Chen, Hua (February 2024, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

   Charge transport in solids at low temperature reveals a material’s mesoscopic properties and structure. Under a magnetic field, Shubnikov–de Haas (SdH) oscillations inform complex quantum transport phenomena that are not limited by the ground state characteristics and have facilitated extensive explorations of quantum and topological interest in two- and three-dimensional materials. Here, in elemental metal Cr with two incommensurately superposed lattices of ions and a spin-density-wave ground state, we reveal that the phases of several low-frequency SdH oscillations in ${\sigma }_{\mathit{xx}} \left({\rho }_{\mathit{xx}}\right)$and ${\sigma }_{\mathit{yy}} \left({\rho }_{\mathit{yy}}\right)$are no longer identical but opposite. These relationships contrast with the SdH oscillations from normal cyclotron orbits that maintain identical phases between ${\sigma }_{\mathit{xx}} \left({\rho }_{\mathit{xx}}\right)$and ${\sigma }_{\mathit{yy}} \left({\rho }_{\mathit{yy}}\right)$ . We trace the origin of the low-frequency SdH oscillations to quantum interference effects arising from the incommensurate orbits of Cr’s superposed reciprocal lattices and explain the observed $\pi$-phase shift by the reconnection of anisotropic joint open and closed orbits. 

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5. Kagome and honeycomb flat bands in moiré graphene

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.108.245136  

   Scheer, Michael G.; Lian, Biao (December 2023, Physical Review B)

   We propose a class of graphene-based moiré systems hosting flat bands on kagome and honeycomb moiré superlattices. These systems are formed by stacking a graphene layer on a 2D substrate with lattice constant approximately sqrt3 times that of graphene. When the moiré potentials are induced by a 2D irreducible corepresentation in the substrate, the model shows a rich phase diagram of low-energy bands including eigenvalue fragile phases as well as kagome and honeycomb flat bands. Spin-orbit coupling in the substrate can lift symmetry-protected degeneracies and create spin Chern bands, and we observe spin Chern numbers up to three. We additionally propose a moiré system formed by stacking two graphene-like layers with similar lattice constants and Fermi energies but with Dirac Fermi velocities of opposite sign. This system exhibits multiple kagome and honeycomb flat bands simultaneously. Both models we propose resemble the hypermagic model of [Scheer et al., Phys. Rev. B 106, 115418 (2022)] and may provide ideal platforms for the realization of strongly correlated topological phases. 

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