Mapping quantum geometry and quantum phase transitions to real space by a fidelity marker

TL;DR

This paper introduces a real-space fidelity marker derived from quantum geometry that can be measured experimentally and used to identify quantum phase transitions in topological materials.

Contribution

It develops a local fidelity marker from quantum metric, connects it to optical measurements, and proposes it as a universal indicator of quantum phase transitions.

Findings

Fidelity number can be expressed as a real-space local quantity.

Fidelity marker can be measured via optical absorption.

Nonlocal fidelity marker signals quantum phase transitions.

Abstract

The quantum geometry in the momentum space of semiconductors and insulators, described by the quantum metric of the valence band Bloch state, has been an intriguing issue owing to its connection to various material properties. Because the Brillouin zone is periodic, the integration of quantum metric over momentum space represents an average distance between neighboring Bloch states, of which we call the fidelity number. We show that this number can further be expressed in real space as a fidelity marker, which is a local quantity that can be calculated directly from diagonalizing the lattice Hamiltonian. A linear response theory is further introduced to generalize the fidelity number and marker to finite temperature, and moreover demonstrates that they can be measured from the global and local optical absorption power against linearly polarized light. In particular, the fidelity number spectral function in 2D systems can be easily measured from the opacity of the material. Based on the divergence of quantum metric, a nonlocal fidelity marker is further introduced and postulated as a universal indicator of any quantum phase transitions provided the crystalline momentum remains a good quantum number, and it may be interpreted as a Wannier state correlation function. The ubiquity of these concepts is demonstrated for a variety of topological insulators and topological phase transitions in different dimensions.