Chiral edge waves in a dance-based human topological insulator

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a novel human dance setup that mimics topological insulator behavior, showing robust unidirectional movement along the boundary that persists despite disruptions, thus extending wave physics concepts to performance arts.

Contribution

It introduces a human dance model that exhibits topological edge waves, bridging physics and performing arts in a novel, interactive demonstration.

Findings

Unidirectional boundary movement persists despite dancer removal.

The dance mimics topological insulator edge states.

Robustness of edge waves demonstrated in a human system.

Abstract

Topological insulators are insulators in the bulk but feature chiral energy propagation along the boundary. This property is topological in nature and therefore robust to disorder. Originally discovered in electronic materials, topologically protected boundary transport has since been observed in many other physical systems. Thus, it is natural to ask whether this phenomenon finds relevance in a broader context. We choreograph a dance in which a group of humans, arranged on a square grid, behave as a topological insulator. The dance features unidirectional flow of movement through dancers on the lattice edge. This effect persists when people are removed from the dance floor. Our work extends the applicability of wave physics to the performance arts.