Boundary-Induced Topological and Mid-Gap States in Charge Conserving One-Dimensional Superconductors

TL;DR

This paper explores how boundary conditions influence the topological and mid-gap phases in one-dimensional charge conserving superconductors, revealing that boundary fields can induce topological states even in systems traditionally considered trivial.

Contribution

It demonstrates that boundary conditions can induce topological phases in charge conserving superconductors, challenging the notion that bulk properties solely determine topology.

Findings

Boundary fields can induce topological phases in SSS superconductors.

Mid-gap phases include fractionalized and un-fractionalized edge states.

Bethe Ansatz confirms boundary-induced topological states.

Abstract

We investigate one-dimensional charge conserving, spin-singlet (SSS) and spin-triplet (STS) superconductors in the presence of boundary fields. In systems with Open Boundary Conditions (OBC) it has been demonstrated that STS display a four-fold topological degeneracy, protected by the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry which reverses the spins of all fermions, whereas SSS are topologically trivial. In this work we show that it is not only the type of the bulk superconducting instability that determines the eventual topological nature of a phase, but rather the interplay between bulk and boundary properties. In particular we show by means of the Bethe Ansatz technique that SSS may as well be in a $\mathbb{Z}_2$-protected topological phase provided suitable "twisted" open boundary conditions ${\widehat{OBC}}$ are imposed. More generally, we find that depending on the boundary fields, a given superconductor, either SSS or STS, may exhibits several types of phases such as topological, mid-gap and trivial phases; each phase being characterized by a boundary fixed point which which we determine. Of particular interest are the mid-gap phases which are stabilized close to the topological fixed point. They include both fractionalized phases where spin-$\frac{1}{4}$ bound-states are localized at the two edges of the system and un-fractionalized phases where a spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ bound-state is localized at either the left or the right edge.