Acoustic higher-order topological insulator from momentum-space nonsymmorphic symmetries

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates an acoustic higher-order topological insulator driven by momentum-space nonsymmorphic symmetries, revealing novel edge and corner states through experimental measurements in resonator arrays.

Contribution

It introduces the first acoustic HOTI protected by momentum-space glide reflections and confirms its properties via experimental edge and corner mode observations.

Findings

Observation of momentum-space glide reflection symmetry.

Detection of quadrupole corner modes.

Edge and bulk gap closures under boundary variations.

Abstract

Momentum-space nonsymmorphic symmetries, stemming from the projective algebra of synthetic gauge fields, can modify the manifold of the Brillouin zone and lead to a variety of topological phenomena. We present an acoustic realization of higher-order topological insulators (HOTIs) protected by a pair of anticommutative momentum-space glide reflections. We confirm the presence of momentum-space glide reflection from the measured momentum half translation of edge bands and their momentum-resolved probability distribution using a cylinder geometry made of acoustic resonator arrays. In particular, we observe both intrinsic and extrinsic HOTI features in such a cylinder: hopping strength variation along the open boundary leads to a bulk gap closure, while that along the closed boundary results in an edge gap closure. In addition, we confirm the presence of quadrupole corner modes with transmission and field distribution measurements. Our observation enriches the study of topological physics of momentum-space nonsymmorphic symmetries.