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The classification of point gap topology in all local non-Hermitian (NH) symmetry classes has been recently established. However, many entries in the resulting periodic table have only been discussed in a formal setting and still lack a physical interpretation in terms of their bulk-boundary correspondence. Here, we derive the edge signatures of all two-dimensional phases with intrinsic point gap topology. While in one dimension point gap topology invariably leads to the NH skin effect, NH boundary physics is significantly richer in two dimensions. We find two broad classes of non-Hermitian edge states: (1)infernal points, where a skin effect occurs only at a single edge momentum, while all other edge momenta are devoid of edge states. Under semi-infinite boundary conditions, the point gap thereby closes completely, but only at a single edge momentum. (2) NH exceptional pointdispersions, where edge states persist at all edge momenta and furnish an anomalous number of symmetry-protected exceptional points. Surprisingly, the latter class of systems allows for a finite, non-extensive number of edge states with a well defined dispersion along all generic edge terminations. Concomitantly, the point gap only closes along the real and imaginary eigenvalue axes, realizing a novel form of NH spectral flow.

Interactions between electrons and phonons play a crucial role in quantum materials. Yet, there is no universal method that would simultaneously accurately account for strong electron-phonon interactions and electronic correlations. By combining methods of the variational quantum eigensolver and the variational non-Gaussian solver, we develop a hybrid quantum-classical algorithm suitable for this type of correlated systems. This hybrid method tackles systems with arbitrarily strong electron-phonon coupling without increasing the number of required qubits and quantum gates, as compared to purely electronic models. We benchmark our method by applying it to the paradigmatic Hubbard-Holstein model at half filling, and show that it correctly captures the competition between charge density wave and antiferromagnetic phases, quantitatively consistent with exact diagonalization.

In insulating crystals, it was previously shown that defects with two fewer dimensions than the bulk can bind topological electronic states. We here further extend the classification of topological defect states by demonstrating that the corners of crystalline defects with integer Burgers vectors can bind 0D higher-order end (HEND) states with anomalous charge and spin. We demonstrate that HEND states are intrinsic topological consequences of the bulk electronic structure and introduce new bulk topological invariants that are predictive of HEND dislocation states in solid-state materials. We demonstrate the presence of first-order 0D defect states in PbTe monolayers and HEND states in 3D SnTe crystals. We relate our analysis to magnetic flux insertion in insulating crystals. We find thatπ-flux tubes in inversion- and time-reversal-symmetric (helical) higher-order topological insulators bind Kramers pairs of spin-charge-separated HEND states, which represent observable signatures of anomalous surface half quantum spin Hall states.

Variational approaches are among the most powerful techniques toapproximately solve quantum many-body problems. These encompass bothvariational states based on tensor or neural networks, and parameterizedquantum circuits in variational quantum eigensolvers. However,self-consistent evaluation of the quality of variational wavefunctionsis a notoriously hard task. Using a recently developed Hamiltonianreconstruction method, we propose a multi-faceted approach to evaluatingthe quality of neural-network based wavefunctions. Specifically, weconsider convolutional neural network (CNN) and restricted Boltzmannmachine (RBM) states trained on a square latticespin-1/2$1/2$J_1\!-\!J_2$J_1-J_2$Heisenberg model. We find that the reconstructed Hamiltonians aretypically less frustrated, and have easy-axis anisotropy near the highfrustration point. In addition, the reconstructed Hamiltonians suppressquantum fluctuations in the largeJ_2$J_2$limit. Our results highlight the critical importance of thewavefunction’s symmetry. Moreover, the multi-faceted insight from theHamiltonian reconstruction reveals that a variational wave function canfail to capture the true ground state through suppression of quantumfluctuations.