Symmetry-Protected Topological Phases in a Rydberg Glass

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that Rydberg atom chains with structural disorder can host symmetry-protected topological phases and phase transitions, providing a promising platform for experimental observation of topological amorphous phases.

Contribution

It introduces a realistic one-dimensional Rydberg atom model exhibiting topological phases induced by structural disorder, including a many-body topological amorphous phase.

Findings

Identification of symmetry-protected topological amorphous insulators

Prediction of a disorder-induced topological phase transition

Existence of a gapless many-body topological phase characterized by a $$ invariant

Abstract

Recent theoretical studies predict that structural disorder, serving as a bridge connecting a crystalline material to an amorphous material, can induce a topological insulator from a trivial phase. However, to experimentally observe such a topological phase transition is very challenging due to the difficulty in controlling structural disorder in a quantum material. Given experimental realization of randomly positioned Rydberg atoms, such a system is naturally suited to studying structural disorder induced topological phase transitions and topological amorphous phases. Motivated by the development, we study topological phases in an experimentally accessible one-dimensional amorphous Rydberg atom chain with random atom configurations. In the single-particle level, we find symmetry-protected topological amorphous insulators and a structural disorder induced topological phase transition, indicating that Rydberg atoms provide an ideal platform to experimentally observe the phenomenon using state-of-the-art technologies. Furthermore, we predict the existence of a gapless symmetry-protected topological phase of interacting bosons in the experimentally accessible system. The resultant many-body topological amorphous phase is characterized by a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ invariant.