Adiabatic continuity, wavefunction overlap and topological phase transitions

TL;DR

This paper explores how wavefunction overlap indicates adiabatic continuity and topological phase equivalence in gapped quantum insulators, with implications for understanding phase transitions and topological properties.

Contribution

It establishes a scalar function in momentum space linking wavefunction overlap to adiabatic paths and topological phases, extending the concept to certain correlated systems.

Findings

Nonzero wavefunction overlap implies adiabatic connection.

Adiabatic paths preserve symmetries of insulators.

Overlap distinguishes different quantum states in some interacting systems.

Abstract

In this article, we study the relation between wavefunction overlap and adiabatic continuity in gapped quantum systems. We show that for two band insulators, a scalar function can be defined in the momentum space, which characterizes the wavefunction overlap between Bloch states in the two insulators. If this overlap is nonzero for all momentum points in the Brillouin zone, these two insulators are adiabatically connected, i.e. we can deform one insulator into the other smoothly without closing the band gap. In addition, we further prove that this adiabatic path preserves all the symmetries of the insulators. The existence of such an adiabatic path implies that two insulators with nonzero wavefunction overlap belong to the same topological phase. This relation, between adiabatic continuity and wavefunction overlap, can be further generalized to correlated systems. The generalized relation cannot be applied to study generic many-body systems in the thermodynamic limit, because of the orthogonality catastrophe. However, for certain interacting systems (e.g. quantum Hall systems), the quantum wavefunction overlap can be utilized to distinguish different quantum states. Experimental implications are also discussed.