2015/11/30 by Konstantinos Meichanetzidis, Jens Eisert, Mauro Cirio +2
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Combinatorics #Condensed matter physics #Gapless playback #Mathematics #Physics #Quantum #Quantum entanglement #Quantum many-body systems #Quantum mechanics #Squashed entanglement #Statistical physics #Theoretical physics #Topological Materials and Phenomena #Topology (electrical circuits) #cond-mat.str-el #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.116.130501
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 130501 (2016) · 4+3 pages, 3+3 figures
arxiv created 2016/02/05 · openalex publication_date 2016/03/30 · arxiv updated 2016/04/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Topological phases of matter possess intricate correlation patterns typically probed by entanglement entropies or entanglement spectra. In this Letter, we propose an alternative approach to assessing topologically induced edge states in free and interacting fermionic systems. We do so by focussing on the fermionic covariance matrix. This matrix is often tractable either analytically or numerically, and it precisely captures the relevant correlations of the system. By invoking the concept of monogamy of entanglement, we show that highly entangled states supported across a system bipartition are largely disentangled from the rest of the system, thus, usually appearing as gapless edge states. We then define an entanglement qualifier that identifies the presence of topological edge states based purely on correlations present in the ground states. We demonstrate the versatility of this qualifier by applying it to various free and interacting fermionic topological systems.