Dirac-Maxwell correspondence: Spin-1 bosonic topological insulator for light

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel spin-1 bosonic topological insulator for light, leveraging a Dirac-Maxwell correspondence and photon spin to reveal a new topological phase of matter with potential experimental signatures.

Contribution

It formulates a bosonic topological phase of matter based on photon spin and discrete symmetries, introducing a bosonic Kramers theorem and topological quantization unique to photons.

Findings

Photons acquire mass in a degenerate chiral medium.

Predicted existence of a gapped Quantum spin-1 Hall bosonic phase.

Photon spin quantization can be experimentally observed.

Abstract

Fundamental differences between fermions and bosons are revealed in their spin and distribution statistics as well as the discrete symmetries they obey (charge, parity and time). While significant progress has been made on fermionic topological phases of matter with time-reversal symmetry, the bosonic counterpart still remains elusive. We present here a spin-1 bosonic topological insulator for light by utilizing a Dirac-Maxwell correspondence. Departing from structural photonic approaches which mimic the pseudo-spin-\textonehalf{} behavior of electrons, we exploit the integer spin and discrete symmetries of the photon to formulate a distinct bosonic topological phase of matter. We introduce a bosonic Kramers theorem and the photonic equivalent of topological quantization, which arises solely from photon spin. Our continuum field theory predicts that photons acquire a mass in the presence of a spatio-temporally dispersive degenerate chirality, a unique form of magneto-electric coupling inside matter fundamentally different from well-known chirality, magneto-electricity, gyrotropy or bi-anisotropy. We predict that this unique dispersive (non-local) degenerate chiral medium has anomalous parity and time-reversal symmetries and if found in nature will exhibit a gapped Quantum spin-1 Hall bosonic phase. Photons do not possess a conductivity transport parameter which can be quantized (unlike electronic systems), but we predict that photon spin quantization of symmetry-protected edge states is amenable to experimental isolation leading to a new bosonic phase of matter.