Supersymmetric free fermions and bosons: Locality, symmetry, and topology
2022 (English)In: Physical Review B, ISSN 2469-9950, E-ISSN 2469-9969, Vol. 105, no 8, article id 085423Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Supersymmetry (SUSY), originally proposed in particle physics, refers to a dual relation that connects fermionic and bosonic degrees of freedom in a system. Recently, there has been considerable interest in applying the idea of SUSY to topological phases, motivated by the attempt to gain insights from the fermion side into the boson side and vice versa. We present a systematic study of this construction when applied to band topology in noninteracting systems. First, on top of the conventional tenfold way, we find that topological insulators and superconductors are divided into three classes depending on whether the supercharge can be local and symmetric, must break a symmetry to preserve locality, or needs to break locality. Second, we resolve the apparent paradox between the nontriviality of free fermions and the triviality of free bosons by noting that the topological information is encoded in the identification map. We also discuss how to understand a recently revealed SUSY entanglement duality in this context. These findings are illustrated by prototypical examples. In this paper, we shed light on band topology from the perspective of SUSY.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
American Physical Society , 2022. Vol. 105, no 8, article id 085423
National Category
Condensed Matter Physics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-79860DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.105.085423ISI: 000766640700005Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85126065208OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mau-79860DiVA, id: diva2:2003008
Funder
Wenner-Gren Foundations2025-10-022025-10-022025-10-02Bibliographically approved