2017/07/31 by Georg Engelhardt, G. Engelhardt, M. Benito +7 · 14 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Invariant (physics) #Mathematics #Phase space #Physics #Position and momentum space #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum many-body systems #Quantum mechanics #Random walk #Statistical physics #Topological Materials and Phenomena #Topological dynamics #Topological entropy in physics #Topological order #Topological quantum number #Topological tensor product #Topology (electrical circuits) #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.96.241404
published in Physical review. B./Physical review. B 96(24) (American Physical Society) · 11 pages including supplementary information, comments are welcome
openalex publication_date 2017/12/08 · arxiv created 2018/03/07 · arxiv updated 2018/03/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The appearance of topological effects in systems exhibiting a nontrivial topological band structure strongly relies on the coherent wave nature of the equations of motion. Here, we reveal topological dynamics in a classical stochastic random walk version of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model with no relation to coherent wave dynamics. We explain that the commonly used topological invariant in the momentum space translates into an invariant in a counting-field space. This invariant gives rise to clear signatures of the topological phase in an associated escape time distribution.