Revealing the boundary Weyl physics of the four-dimensional Hall effect via phason engineering in metamaterials

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how phason engineering in metamaterials can simulate four-dimensional quantum Hall physics in a reconfigurable two-dimensional acoustic crystal, revealing boundary Weyl singularities and enabling topological wave control.

Contribution

It introduces phason engineering as a method to access higher-dimensional topological physics in lower-dimensional metamaterials, with experimental validation.

Findings

Reconfigurable 2D acoustic crystal exhibits 4D quantum Hall physics.

Boundary spectrum forms Weyl singularities as a function of quasi-momenta.

Topological wave steering achieved via Weyl physics of 3D boundaries.

Abstract

Quantum Hall physics has been theoretically predicted in 4-dimensions and higher. In hypothetical 2n-dimensions, the topological characters of both the bulk and the boundary are manifested as quantized non-linear transport coefficients that connect, respectively, to the n-th Chern number of the bulk gap projection and to the n-th winding number of the Weyl spectral singularities on the (2n-1)-dimensional boundaries. Here, we introduce the concept of phason engineering in metamaterials and use it as a vehicle to access and apply the quantum Hall physics in arbitrary dimensions. Using these specialized design principles, we fabricate a re-configurable 2-dimensional aperiodic acoustic crystal with a phason living on a 2-torus, giving us access to the 4-dimensional quantum Hall physics. Also, we supply a direct experimental confirmation that the topological boundary spectrum assembles in a Weyl singularity when mapped as function of the quasi-momenta. We also demonstrate topological wave steering enabled by the Weyl physics of the 3-dimensional boundaries.