Hidden chiral symmetry protected $\mathbb{Z}\oplus\mathbb{Z}$ topological insulators in a ladder dimer model

TL;DR

This paper introduces a two-leg ladder dimer model with hidden chiral symmetry, revealing a novel $ ext{Z} imes ext{Z}$ topological phase with unique edge states, and proposes potential physical realizations.

Contribution

It uncovers a hidden chiral symmetry in a ladder dimer model, leading to a new topological phase characterized by $ ext{Z} imes ext{Z}$ invariants, expanding understanding of topological insulators.

Findings

Identification of a hidden chiral symmetry in the ladder model.

Discovery of a $ ext{Z} imes ext{Z}$ topological phase with zero mode edge states.

Existence of an anomalous topologically nontrivial region with unconventional hopping parameters.

Abstract

We construct a two-leg ladder dimer model by using two orbitals instead of one in Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) dimer chain and find out a chiral symmetry in it. In this model, the otherwise-hidden additional chiral symmetry allows us to define two chiral massless fermions and show that there exist interesting topological states characterized by $\mathbb{Z}\oplus\mathbb{Z}$ and corresponding zero mode edge states. Our complete phase diagram reveals that there is an anomalous topologically nontrivial region in addition to the normal one similar to that of SSH model. The anomalous region features that the inter-cell hopping constants can be much smaller than the intra-cell ones, being opposite to the normal region, and the zero mode edge states do not have well-defined parity each. Finally, we suggest that this ladder dimer model can be realized in double-well optical lattices, ladder polymer systems, and adatom double chains on semiconductor surfaces.