# Topological Phases emerging from Spin-Orbital Physics

## TL;DR

This paper investigates how topological phases can emerge from spin-orbital interactions in inhomogeneous quantum systems, revealing edge modes and domain boundaries related to magnetic correlations.

## Contribution

It demonstrates the emergence of topological phases with zero energy edge modes from spin-orbital physics in inhomogeneous quantum systems with impurities.

## Key findings

- Large spin-orbital entanglement with antiferromagnetic correlations
- Pure orbital description in ferromagnetic regimes
- Identification of topological phases with zero energy edge modes

## Abstract

We study the evolution of spin-orbital correlations in an inhomogeneous quantum system with an impurity replacing a doublon by a holon orbital degree of freedom. Spin-orbital entanglement is large when spin correlations are antiferromagnetic, while for a ferromagnetic host we obtain a pure orbital description. In this regime the orbital model can be mapped on spinless fermions and we uncover topological phases with zero energy modes at the edge or at the domain between magnetically inequivalent regions.