Multi-gap topology of the Wilson loop operator in mirror symmetric insulators

Penghao Zhu; Taylor L. Hughes; Xiao-Qi Sun

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arXiv · 2109.13947

Multi-gap topology of the Wilson loop operator in mirror symmetric insulators

Penghao Zhu·Taylor L. Hughes·Xiao-Qi Sun

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Abstract

We study the multi-gap topology of the periodic spectra of Wilson loop operators (WLOs) in mirror symmetric insulators. We develop two topological invariants each associated with a mirror-invariant gap in the Wilson loop spectrum. We propose that both topological invariants in combination determine the general higher-order bulk-boundary correspondence in 2D mirror symmetric, boundary-obstructed topological insulators. Finally, we demonstrate that these new multi-gap topological invariants apply to anomalous cases beyond those captured by the nested Wilson loop, and we subsequently develop an understanding of the correlation between WLOs along two orthogonal directions.

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Penghao Zhu, Taylor L. Hughes, Xiao-Qi Sun. 2021-09-28. Multi-gap topology of the Wilson loop operator in mirror symmetric insulators. https://arxiv.org/abs/2109.13947

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