2020/02/29 by Zhihao Xu, Shu Chen · 1 citation
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Band gap #Boundary (topology) #Boundary value problem #Condensed matter physics #Hermitian matrix #Hubbard model #Mathematical analysis #Mathematics #Mott insulator #Mott transition #Periodic boundary conditions #Physics #Quantum Mechanics and Non-Hermitian Physics #Quantum mechanics #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #Topological Materials and Phenomena #Topological insulator #Topology (electrical circuits) #cond-mat.str-el
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.102.035153
published as Phys. Rev. B 102, 035153 (2020) · 11 pages, 7 figures
openalex publication_date 2020/07/27 · arxiv created 2020/07/28 · arxiv updated 2020/07/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We study the topological properties of Bose-Mott insulators in one-dimensional non-Hermitian superlattices, which may serve as effective Hamiltonians for cold atomic optical systems with either two-body loss or one-body loss. We find that in the strongly repulsive limit, the Mott insulator states of the Bose-Hubbard model with a finite two-body loss under integer fillings are topological insulators characterized by a finite charge gap, nonzero integer Chern numbers, and nontrivial edge modes in a low-energy excitation spectrum under an open boundary condition. The two-body loss suppressed by the strong repulsion results in a stable topological Bose-Mott insulator which has features similar to the Hermitian case. However, for the non-Hermitian model related to the one-body loss, we find the non-Hermitian topological Mott insulators are unstable with a finite imaginary excitation gap. Finally, we also discuss the stability of the Mott phase in the presence of two-body loss by solving the Lindblad master equation.