L lines, C points and Chern numbers: understanding band structure topology using polarization fields
| Autor: | F��sel, Thomas, Peano, Vittorio, Marquardt, Florian |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | New Journal of Physics |
| ISSN: | 1367-2630 0150-536X 0034-4885 1464-4266 0305-4470 |
| Popis: | Topology has appeared in different physical contexts. The most prominent application is topologically protected edge transport in condensed matter physics. The Chern number, the topological invariant of gapped Bloch Hamiltonians, is an important quantity in this field. Another example of topology, in polarization physics, are polarization singularities, called L lines and C points. By establishing a connection between these two theories, we develop a novel technique to visualize and potentially measure the Chern number: it can be expressed either as the winding of the polarization azimuth along L lines in reciprocal space, or in terms of the handedness and the index of the C points. For mechanical systems, this is directly connected to the visible motion patterns. 16 pages, 5 figures; presented at the APS March Meeting 2017 (session A15) |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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