Fractional Topology in Interacting 1D Superconductors

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Fractional Topology in Interacting 1D Superconductors
Frederick del Pozo, Lo¨ıc Herviou, and Karyn Le Hur
Centre de Physique Th´eorique, ´
Ecole Polytechnique (IP Paris), 91128 Palaiseau, France and
SB IPHYS, EPFL, Rte de la Sorge CH-1015 Lausanne
(Dated: March 17, 2023)
We investigate the topological phases of two one-dimensional (1D) interacting superconducting
wires and propose topological markers directly measurable from ground state correlation functions.
These quantities remain powerful tools in the presence of couplings and interactions. We show
with the density matrix renormalization group that the double critical Ising (DCI) phase discovered
in [1] is a fractional topological phase with gapless Majorana modes in the bulk, and a one-half
topological invariant per wire. Using both numerics and quantum field theoretical methods, we
show that the phase diagram remains stable in the presence of an inter-wire hopping amplitude t
at length scales below 1/t. A large inter-wire hopping amplitude results in the emergence of two
integer topological phases, stable also at large interactions. They host one edge mode per boundary
shared between both wires. At large interactions, the two wires are described by Mott physics, with
the thopping amplitude resulting in a paramagnetic order.
I. INTRODUCTION
Quantum Mechanics gives rise to important phenom-
ena such as Bose-Einstein condensation and its charged
analog superconductivity, wherein a coherence builds up
between the constituents in the bulk of the material.
Such phases of matter are governed by quantum phase
transitions, wherein even at zero temperature quantum
fluctuations become relevant enough to drive, or desta-
bilize, an underlying ordering. Already since the 70s,
it was found that such transitions can occur without
the inherent breaking of symmetries, and, instead, the
phases of matter are distinguished by winding numbers
or more generally by topological invariants [2, 3]. Whilst
these are usually found to be integer values [4], in the
presence of interactions fractional topological states of
matter have also been predicted as for example in the
fractional quantum hall effect (FQHE) [5], associated
with the direct observation of fractional charges [6, 7].
Due to their robustness against perturbations and
impurities, topological materials have seen a growing
interest in recent years. Particularly the applications of
topological superconductors and insulators in quantum
circuits and computers [8] drive both experimental and
theoretical developments. The key reason these topolog-
ical materials are particularly promising is the existence
of exotic anyonic edge modes, which have been proposed
as candidates to build resilient, large-scale quantum
computers [9]. Since the seminal work by Kitaev [10],
one-dimensional spinless superconductors are predicted
to host elusive Majorana fermions [11] on their edges,
which are essentially the real and imaginary parts of
a complex Dirac fermion. Majoranas are as elusive as
they are sought for. Whilst their potential applications
to realizing low-error quantum computation [9, 12] have
stimulated vigorous research, the scientific community
has yet to reach a consensus on whether or not Majorana
edge modes have been detected experimentally. Yet,
there is recent hope that their discovery is on the horizon
[13], paving the way for further interesting applications,
for example with Majorana wire heterostructures. As
demonstrated in [9], networks of spinless p-wave super-
conducting nano-wires offer a promising platform to
realise anyonic exchange statistics. Due to the proximity
of the wires in these heterostructures, hopping and
super-conductive pairing terms between different wires
will naturally occur in realistic setups. Already two
coupled wires, i.e. ladders, are found to have a rich phase
diagram without interactions [14, 15]. Also in the quasi
two-dimensional limit, additional hopping and pairing
terms can have a substantial impact on the macroscopic
properties, as was demonstrated for example in [16]
for a quasi-two-dimensional grid of Majorana wires. It
was shown that in the presence of cross-wire couplings,
it is possible to design (p+ip) superconductivity by
threading appropriate fluxes through each unit cell.
The theory for proximity-induced topological super-
conductivity (SC) focuses strongly on non-interacting
electron models [9]. However, realistic materials will
necessarily be exposed to both internal and external
interactions, which may give rise to previously unknown
transitions [17, 18]. For example, it was found in [19]
that due to the interplay between interactions and
inter-wire hopping amplitude a transition to a super-
conducting state can occur, for two chains of spinless
fermions without SC-pairing. Another fascinating effect
often found in interacting systems is the fractionalization
of the underlying degrees of freedom, for example, the
fractionalization of charge in the FQHE [7] or also
in the case of quantum wires [20]. Another instance
of fractionalization was discovered in the case of two
interacting Kitaev wires [1], wherein the gapless double
critical Ising phase was found to host free Majoranas in
the bulk. Against the backdrop of topological materials
in modern technology, developing a deeper under-
standing of the DCI phase and its Majorana physics is
arXiv:2210.05024v3 [cond-mat.str-el] 16 Mar 2023
2
therefore relevant. Recent advances in unraveling the
phase diagram of two interacting Bloch spheres [21, 22]
revealed also the emergence of a fractional topological
phase at large interactions. In fact, for the single Kitaev
wire, there exists a well-established map onto the Bloch
sphere through the Bogoliubov-De Gennes representa-
tion [22, 23]. Thus these recent findings stimulate us to
investigate the DCI phase further, and in particular its
link to the fractional Bloch sphere phase in [21].
The extensions beyond non-interacting chains are
plentiful and there is a lot of ground to cover. In
this paper we focus in particular on deepening our
understanding of the DCI phase, its link to fractional
topology as well as the effects of an inter-wire hopping
amplitude ton the phase diagram found in [1]. We
first propose in Sec. II topological invariants for the
one-dimensional superconducting Kitaev chains, which
by mapping onto the Bloch sphere are found to be
direct analogs of the TKNN invariant [3]. We show that
these quantities, defined through two-point correlation
functions, can be extended to two or more wires and
that they remain powerful tools and topological markers
to study the phases of coupled wires also in the presence
of interactions. We evaluate these correlation functions
using Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG)
calculations [24–26]. In Sec. III, we elaborate on
the C= 1/2 topological invariant(s) associated with
the critical theory of the Majorana fermions at the
topological quantum phase transition for one Kitaev
wire, and we establish a relation with the Bloch sphere.
In Sec. IV, we first review briefly the regions in the
phase diagram of two interacting superconducting wires
[1]. We present an approach to understanding the
underlying quantum field theory (QFT) of both the
single and double critical Ising (DCI) phases [1] in terms
of chiral bulk modes, intimately related to the critical
theory of a single Kitaev wire. Then, in Sec. IV B,
we show with DMRG calculations that our topological
markers take on fractional values of C= 1/2 in the
DCI phase, which establishes a clear link between the
topological phases of two interacting Bloch spheres [21].
Furthermore, we argue that this also strengthens the
notion that the DCI phase is described by two c= 1/2
critical models per wire where now crefers to the central
charge [27–30] of the model.
Finally in Sec. V we also investigate both numerically
and analytically the phase diagram in [1] in the pres-
ence of an inter-wire hopping amplitude t, similar to
the ladders studied in [14], to determine the stability of
the coupled-wire phases towards more experimentally re-
alistic setups. It is perhaps relevant to mention here that
the tterm does not have a simple correspondence on
the Bloch spheres’ model since mapping fermions onto
spins-1
2through the Jordan-Wigner transformation will
result in “strings” accompanying this operator in the
spin language. Therefore, it is worthwhile studying the
effect of such a perturbation in the two-wires’ model.
The strength of the tterm compared to the Coulomb
interaction may be adjusted by fixing the distance be-
tween the two wires (a hopping term is supposed to de-
cay exponentially with distance from a Wentzel-Kramers-
Brillouin picture). We find that for perturbative values
of tthe DCI phase and phase diagram remain robust.
We study the phase diagram for larger values of the inter-
wires hopping term, as well as interactions. We also ad-
dress the case for prominent interactions between both
wires, which gives rise to Mott physics [1] in the |g|→∞
limit. Our results are finally summarized in VI. In Ap-
pendices, we present additional information on DMRG
and quantum field theory.
II. TOPOLOGICAL MARKERS FROM
CORRELATION FUNCTIONS
The aim of this section is to define topological invari-
ants for Kitaev p-wave spin-polarized superconducting
wires [10], and express these quantities in terms of real-
space correlation functions. First, we remind the reader
of the Kitaev wire [10], and associated Bogoliubov-De
Gennes formalism, which due to the particle-hole sym-
metry of the Kitaev wire allows a direct mapping onto a
single Bloch sphere [22, 23, 31]. From this, a definition
of a Chern number `a la [21] leads directly to the desired
real-space correlation functions. Then, by similar consid-
erations, we argue that in the case of two weakly inter-
acting wires in the sense of [1], a mapping on two-coupled
Bloch spheres remains sensible [22]. Whilst the quanti-
zation of the invariants is no longer guaranteed, we show
numerically using DMRG that these Chern numbers re-
main sensible markers to characterize and investigate the
topological phases in the presence of interactions.
A. Review of the Kitaev wire and its topological
phase diagram
In this article we investigate the topological phases
of (interacting and coupled) Kitaev wires of spinless
fermions. The Kitaev wire is defined by the following
Hamiltonian [8, 10]
HK=µX
j
njtX
j
c
jcj+1 + h.c.
+4eX
j
c
jc
j+1 + h.c..
(1)
Here µis the chemical potential acting globally on both
wires, tis the hopping amplitude, ethe supercon-
ducting pairing-strength with phase ϕand nc,j =c
jcj.
The single wire has two topologically distinct extended
phases. A topological phase transition occurs at the criti-
cal chemical potentials µ=±2t. In his seminal work [10],
Kitaev developed an intuitive picture of these phases, by
3
decomposing the original c-fermions into their Majorana
constituents [23]
cj=1
2(γA,j +B,j ).(2)
The Hamiltonian (1), for ϕ= 0, takes the following form
when expressed in terms of the Majorana fermions
HK=X
j
it
2γB,j γA,j+1 +it+ ∆
2γB,j+1γA,j
iµ
2X
j
γA,j γB,j .
(3)
The two topologically distinct phases can then be under-
stood in the two patterns of Majoranas which emerge,
depending on the chemical potential. For a pictorial rep-
resentation of the two distinct patterns, see figure 1. In
the trivial phases with |µ|>2t, the on-site pairing of
Majoranas is favoured, thus in the t= ∆ = 0 limit we
find the upper (trivial) pattern in (2). In the topological
phase |µ|<2t, the nearest-neighbour pairing will domi-
nate, such that for t= ∆ and µ= 0 the lower (topolog-
ical) pattern in (2) emerges. This can be understood in
terms of the following non-local fermions
dR,j =1
2(γA,j+1 +B,j ).(4)
For open boundary conditions (OBCs) this results in
zero-energy “dangling edge modes” which make the
ground state doubly degenerate.
FIG. 1. The two distinct patterns of Majorana fermions in
the trivial (upper) and topological (lower) phases of a Kitaev
wire. We refer to Ref. [8] for a more in-depth discussion and
review of the topological phases of the Kitaev wire.
Whilst the emergence of edge modes and ground state
degeneracy are both hallmarks of a topological transi-
tion, it is the definition of global and robust invariant
which makes the direct link to topology in the mathe-
matical sense. This link is perhaps best understood when
considering the seminal work in [3], where the Zvalued
TKNN invariant (or First Chern number) is defined from
the Berry connection [32] an
j(k) = ihn, k|
kj|n, kiof the
eigenstates of each band [23, 33]
c1=X
n’th filled band ZT2
dk2an
y
kxan
x
ky.(5)
The Chern number is calculated on the ground state
by summing over the nlowest filled bands |n, ki. It
is quantized and can only take integer values, and is
a direct analogue of the Gauss-Bonnet theorem for
surfaces: The expression in brackets defines a curvature
2-form or tensor Ωkx,kyon the Brillouin zone which is a
2-torus T2due to periodic boundary conditions (PBCs)
in both directions. The TKNN-invariant defined above
is not suitable for distinguishing all classes of topological
systems. For example, the Chern number (5) is not
invariant under time-reversal-symmetry (TRS), and
hence vanishes in such systems. Instead, for example in
the two-dimensional quantum spin Hall phase, Kane and
Mele discovered [34] that the appropriate topological
number is a Z2invariant. This has been generalized also
to other systems [35], and is now often referred to as the
Fu-Kane-Mele invariant. For non-interacting systems
the different possible topological phases have been
classified by dimension and symmetries [36] in various
“periodic tables”, cf. Altand-Zirnbauer classification
[37] or Kitaev [38]. The Kitaev wire described by (1) is
characterized by a Z2invariant.
In momentum space and the Bogoliubov-De Gennes
Hamiltonian representation (i.e. spinless Nambu ba-
sis) defined through ψ
k=c
k, ck, the single-particle
Hamiltonian in (1) can be written as the 2 ×2 Matrix
HK=X
k
ψ
kkk
kkψk=X
k
ψ
kHkψk,(6)
where we define k=µ
2+tcos (ka)and SC pairing
k=i4esin (ka). We choose the Fourier transform
on the N-site chain with x=ja with the convention
cj=1
NX
kBZ
eikxck.(7)
The two distinct topological phases can then be de-
termined from the signs of the kinetic term kat the
high-symmetry points k= 0 and k=π/a [23], la-
beled by δak=0respectively. The trivial phases result
in δ0=δπ=±1. The topological ones instead have
δ0=δπ=±1, depending on the signs of tand µ. This
defines a Z2-invariant ν, which in this case is introduced
in the well-known way [10, 23]
ν= (1)δ0δπ.(8)
4
Long-range hopping and pairing terms may result in
higher topological invariants [39], which are then the
winding numbers m. However, as we consider only
nearest-neighbor hopping and pairing terms, cf. eq. (1),
the winding numbers are restricted to 0, ±1 (in agree-
ment with the structure of Majorana fermions at the
edges). The Z2number in (8) is thus enough to clas-
sify the system.
B. Chern number from real-space correlation
functions
We show in the following how to define a (particle)
Chern number C= 0,1, which is directly measurable
from real-space correlation functions of the wire.
Central to our argument is the duality between the mo-
mentum space Hamiltonian in (6) and a Bloch sphere in-
teracting with an external field [22, 31], cf. the discussion
in appendix A. From the momentum space Hamiltonian
(6), the single-particle (Bogoliubov-De Gennes) Hamil-
tonian Hkis a complex 2 ×2 matrix. By introducing
(pseudo-)spin ~
Skand ~
dkvector
~
S=
c
kc
k+ckck
ic
kc
kckck
c
kckckc
k
,~
dk=
k+∆
k
2
k
k
2i
k
,(9)
we may write the single-particle Hamiltonian reminiscent
of a spin in a magnetic field [23]
Hk=~
dk·~
Sk.(10)
Here ~
dkacts like a “magnetic field” on the pseudo-
spin ~
Sk,cf. discussion in A. Together with the super-
conducting phase ϕ, which remains a free parameter, we
map the vector ~
dkonto the two-sphere, interpreting the
momentum label ka and super-conducting phase ϕas the
angular coordinates ϑand ˜ϕin (A1). Through the defini-
tions in Appendix A on the sphere this results in [22, 31]
the identifications
cos (ϑk) = 2tcos(ka) + µ
E(ka),(11)
sin (ϑk)ei˜ϕ=ie2 sin(ka)
E(ka)
where E(ka) = q(µ+ 2tcos (ka))2+ 442sin (ka)2.
To be more precise, we introduce the ~
d-vector as
~
d=|~
d|(cos ϑsin ˜ϕ, sin ϑsin ˜ϕ, cos ϑ) with the energetic
correspondence E(ka)=2|~
d|. There is a correspondence
between the two eigenstates of the spin-1
2particle and
the definitions of the quasiparticles in the wire model.
Here, ˜ϕrepresents the azimuthal angle on the sphere.
Fixing µ= 0 and t= ∆ we observe that ϑk=ka (and
ei˜ϕ=ie). On the sphere, ϑk[0; π] such that
this will effectively correspond to a half Brillouin zone
on the lattice due to the particle-hole symmetry (PHS)
of the Kitaev model. Conversely if µt= ∆, then
ϑk= const..
The 2 ×2 Hamiltonian is diagonalized by the Bogoli-
ubov quasi-particles η
k=u
kc
k+v
kcksimilarly as in the
Bardeen Cooper and Schrieffer model [40]. For a general
phase ϕ, we can e.g. define the quasiparticle operator
ηassociated to an occupied quasiparticle state and to
the lowest energy eigenstate of the spin-1
2in (A2). The
Bogoliubov de Gennes (BdG) transformation then diag-
onalizes the Hamiltonian, yielding two quasi-particles η±
corresponding to the upper and lower band. As particle-
hole symmetry relates both, the label ±can be dropped
and the BdG transformation defined through the lowest
energy eigenvector of (6) with Hamiltonian E(ka)η
kηk.
This results in
η
k= cos (ϑk/2) c
k+iesin (ϑk/2) ck.(12)
The |BCSiground state can be defined for the filled
energy states as ηkη
k|BCSi= 0. It has the following
explicit expression [1]
|BCSi=δµ<2t+ (1 δµ<2t)c
0×
k< π
a
Y
k>0sin (ϑk/2) ie+cos (ϑk/2) c
kc
k
×δµ<2t+ (1 δµ<2t)c
π|0i.
(13)
The points k= 0 and ka =πrequire some care where
the pairing function goes to zero. We have adjusted
the δfunctions to correspond to filled or empty states
according to the value of the chemical potential in
agreement with the matrix (6). From the Bogoliubov-De
Gennes quasi-particle basis, the link to the Bloch sphere
eigenvector |GSiin Appendix A for each klabel is made
by taking c
k→ | ↑i and ck→ | ↓i [22, 31].
As was first shown in [21] for (coupled-) Bloch spheres,
the quantized Chern number in (5) can be written from
the polarizations of the spin at the two poles of the Bloch
sphere:
C=1
2(hSz(ϑ= 0)i−hSz(ϑ=π)i).(14)
For two spheres the well-definedness of partial Chern
numbers [41] was demonstrated for a wide range of in-
teractions, and resulted in the discovery of a fractional
geometric phase at comparably large interactions [21].
By mapping (k, ϕ) onto the Bloch sphere (two-sphere),
we can define a Chern number C`a la [21] by simply
evaluating the zSpin operator at the “poles” k= 0 and
ka =π
C=1
2(hSz
ka=0i−hSz
ka=πi).(15)
5
Acting with Szon the BCS ground state we explicitly
find hSz
ki= cos (ϑk), which is the Ehrenfest theorem for
a spin half particle in a radial magnetic field [22, 31].
For µtand thus ϑk=const., we immediately find
C= 0. In the µ= 0 we have ϑk=ka, and hence
C=1
2(cos (0) cos (π)) = 1. This splitting results
in two bands, the (quasi-)particles and holes, such
that Ctot =Cp+Ch. From the PHS it also follows
that Cp=Ch, which can be readily seen by the
formula Ch=1
2(hSz
ka=πi−hSz
ka=2πi) and the fact that
ka = 2πis identified with k= 0. Thus the total Chern
number Ctot = 0, in agreement with the literature.
We also recover the same Z2invariant as defined in
equation (8) [22], by taking the product hSz
ka=0i·hSz
ka=πi.
We now show that the particle Chern number Cde-
fined in (15) can recast as a physically and experimen-
tally sensible quantity, as it can be expressed in terms of
real-space correlation functions of the wire.
C. Measuring topology from correlation functions
The first step is to represent the z-spin operators
Sz
ka=0in terms of the real-space (spinless-) fermionic
operators cjand c
j. For this, we perform a Fourier trans-
form of the pseudo-spin Sz
kyielding
Sz
i1
NX
k
eikxiSz
k
=1
N3X
kBZ;j,r
eik(xi+xjxr)c
jcr
1
N3X
kBZ;j,r
eik(xrxjxi)cjc
r.
(16)
Performing the sum over the momentum label kBZ
reduces the above expression to
Sz
i=1
NX
jc
jcj+icjc
j+i.(17)
As can be seen, for i > 0 these operators are intrinsi-
cally related to the amplitudes of i’th neighbour hopping,
whilst for i= 0 it is found to be simply 1
NPj(2nj1).
Since the momenta k= 0 and k=π/a are special in
the sense that eikx = 1 and eikx = (1)xrespectively,
the “backwards” Fourier transform is especially simple
to perform, and results in
Sz
ka=0 =1
NX
i
Sz
i, Sz
ka=π=1
NX
i
(1)iSz
i.(18)
From these two (independent) equations we define the
Chern number C, as well as its “dual” Cas
1
2DSz
k=0 Sz
k=π
aEC=1
N
N/2
X
i=0hSz
2i+1i
1
2DSz
k=0 +Sz
k=π
aEC=1
N
N/2
X
i=0 hSz
2ii.
(19)
Here the Chern number Cis the relative polarization,
and Cthe absolute polarization,dual to Cby measuring
the degree of alignment of the spins. Equation (19)
defines topological markers in real space. This sets them
apart from other, momentum space topological numbers,
making them directly accessible numerically for example
with DMRG. Whilst other topological markers have
previously been defined over non-local correlation func-
tions in real space [42, 43], the quantities defined in (19)
repackage that information into a physically intuitive,
and conceptual observable. As an example, we now show
how to obtain the correct pattern of Majoranas shown
in figure 1 from Cand C.
For the single Kitaev wire, the ground state is sim-
ply given by the BCS wave function, from which it is
straightforward to calculate the real-space correlation
functions. In terms of the ϑkangles, the expectation
values of hc
r+jcj+ h.c.ican be calculated directly and
one finds
hSz
j>0i=1
NX
kBZ
cos (k·j) (1 cos (ϑk))
hSz
j=0i=1
NX
jBZ
(1 cos (ϑk)) 1.
(20)
For the j= 0 case one needs to account for the anti-
commutation relations in (17). When the spectrum has
a gap, the correlations decay exponentially with a corre-
lation length ξ, and thus we only need of order ξterms
to obtain a robust topological marker. The following two
examples correspond to the extreme limit where ξis min-
imal: The two patterns presented in figure 1 above are
exact in the limits of t= ∆ = 0, and µ= 0 respectively
[10], for which ϑksimplifies considerably. In the trivial
(µt) case ϑk=π, such that the only non-zero expec-
tation value in (20) is hSz
j=0i= 1. This is equivalent to
a density of fermions nc= 1 and the wire is filled with
on-site bound Majoranas for each lattice site, cf. figure 1.
For the topological case at µ= 0 we found that ϑk=ka,
thus only hSz
j=1i 6= 0. This implies on the one hand that
2nc1 = 0, i.e. half-filling. In addition to the non-
local fermion (4), we introduce the left-binding fermions
dL,j =1
2(γA,j B,j+1). Together with dR,j one finds
Sz
j=1 =1
NX
jd
R,j dR,j d
L,j dL,j =nRnL(21)
摘要:

FractionalTopologyinInteracting1DSuperconductorsFrederickdelPozo,LocHerviouy,andKarynLeHurCentredePhysiqueTheorique,EcolePolytechnique(IPParis),91128Palaiseau,FranceandySBIPHYS,EPFL,RtedelaSorgeCH-1015Lausanne(Dated:March17,2023)Weinvestigatethetopologicalphasesoftwoone-dimensional(1D)interac...

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