Bulk-boundary correspondence in non-Hermitian systems: stability analysis for generalized boundary conditions

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the bulk-boundary correspondence in non-Hermitian topological systems is affected by boundary conditions, providing analytical solutions and assessing the robustness of the modified correspondence.

Contribution

It offers the first analytical solutions for non-Hermitian models under generalized boundary conditions and evaluates the stability of the non-Hermitian BBC phenomenon.

Findings

Analytical solutions for zero-energy modes with generalized boundary conditions.

Demonstration of the breakdown of conventional BBC in non-Hermitian systems.

Analysis of the robustness of the modified non-Hermitian BBC.

Abstract

The bulk-boundary correspondence (BBC), i.e. the direct relation between bulk topological invariants defined for infinite periodic systems and the occurrence of protected zero-energy surface states in finite samples, is a ubiquitous and widely observed phenomenon in topological matter. In non-Hermitian generalizations of topological systems, however, this fundamental correspondence has recently been found to be qualitatively altered, largely owing to the sensitivity of non-Hermitian eigenspectra to changing the boundary conditions. In this work, we report on two contributions towards comprehensively explaining this remarkable behavior unique to non-Hermitian systems with theory. First, we analytically solve paradigmatic non-Hermitian topological models for their zero-energy modes in the presence of generalized boundary conditions interpolating between open and periodic boundary conditions, thus explicitly following the breakdown of the conventional BBC. Second, addressing the aforementioned spectral fragility of non-Hermitian matrices, we investigate as to what extent the modified non-Hermitian BBC represents a robust and generically observable phenomenon.