TY - JOUR
T1 - Trace index and spectral flow in the entanglement spectrum of topological insulators
AU - Alexandradinata, A.
AU - Hughes, Taylor L.
AU - Bernevig, B. Andrei
PY - 2011/11/3
Y1 - 2011/11/3
N2 - We investigate the entanglement spectra of topological insulators, which manifest edge states on a lattice with spatial boundaries. In the physical energy spectrum, a subset of the edge states that intersect the Fermi level translates to discontinuities in the trace of the single-particle entanglement spectrum, which we call a "trace index." We find that any free-fermion topological insulator that exhibits spectral flow has a nonvanishing trace index, which provides us with a new description of topological invariants. In addition, we identify the signatures of spectral flow in the single-particle and many-body entanglement spectrum; in the process we present new methods to extract topological invariants and establish a connection between entanglement and quantum Hall physics.
AB - We investigate the entanglement spectra of topological insulators, which manifest edge states on a lattice with spatial boundaries. In the physical energy spectrum, a subset of the edge states that intersect the Fermi level translates to discontinuities in the trace of the single-particle entanglement spectrum, which we call a "trace index." We find that any free-fermion topological insulator that exhibits spectral flow has a nonvanishing trace index, which provides us with a new description of topological invariants. In addition, we identify the signatures of spectral flow in the single-particle and many-body entanglement spectrum; in the process we present new methods to extract topological invariants and establish a connection between entanglement and quantum Hall physics.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevB.84.195103
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevB.84.195103
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:82655172718
SN - 1098-0121
VL - 84
JO - Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics
JF - Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics
IS - 19
M1 - 195103
ER -