Dynamical signatures of symmetry protected topology following symmetry breaking
We investigate topological signatures in the short-time non-equilibrium dynamics of symmetry protected topological (SPT) systems starting from initial states which break the protecting symmetry. Naïvely, one might expect that topology loses meaning when a protecting symmetry is broken. Defying this intuition, we illustrate, in an interacting Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model, how this combination of symmetry breaking and quench dynamics can give rise to both single-particle and many-body signatures of topology. From the dynamics of the symmetry broken state, we find that we are able to dynamically probe the equilibrium topological phase diagram of a symmetry respecting projection of the post-quench Hamiltonian. In the ensemble dynamics, we demonstrate how spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) of the protecting symmetry can result in a quantized many-body topological `invariant' which is not pinned under unitary time evolution. We dub this `dynamical many-body topology' (DMBT). We show numerically that both the pure state and ensemble signatures are remarkably robust, and argue that these non-equilibrium signatures should be quite generic in SPT systems, regardless of protecting symmetries or spatial dimension.
- Research Organization:
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-76SF00515
- OSTI ID:
- 1784366
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1782726
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review Research, Journal Name: Physical Review Research Vol. 3 Journal Issue: 2; ISSN 2643-1564
- Publisher:
- American Physical SocietyCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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