2017/02/22 by Xiang-Fa Zhou, Xi-Wang Luo, Su Wang +5 · 1 citation
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Boundary (topology) #Boundary value problem #Degenerate energy levels #Floquet theory #Lattice (music) #Mathematics #Optical lattice #Photonic Crystals and Applications #Photonics #Physics #Quantum many-body systems #Quantum mechanics #Scheme (mathematics) #Symmetry protected topological order #Topological Materials and Phenomena #Topological degeneracy #Topological insulator #Topological order #Topology (electrical circuits) #physics.optics #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.118.083603
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 083603 (2017) · 6 pages, 5 figures
openalex publication_date 2017/02/22 · arxiv created 2017/03/17 · arxiv updated 2017/03/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
We propose a scheme to simulate topological physics within a single degenerate cavity, whose modes are mapped to lattice sites. A crucial ingredient of the scheme is to construct a sharp boundary so that the open boundary condition can be implemented for this effective lattice system. In doing so, the topological properties of the system can manifest themselves on the edge states, which can be probed from the spectrum of an output cavity field. We demonstrate this with two examples: a static Su-Schrieffer-Heeger chain and a periodically driven Floquet topological insulator. Our work opens up new avenues to explore exotic photonic topological phases inside a single optical cavity.