Boundary conditions and violations of bulk-edge correspondence in a hydrodynamic model

TL;DR

This paper classifies boundary conditions in a hydrodynamic model and explores how they cause violations of bulk-edge correspondence, revealing a spectral mechanism and the role of symmetries in these violations.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive classification of boundary conditions in a hydrodynamic topological model and analyzes how they lead to bulk-edge correspondence violations.

Findings

Boundary conditions form four distinct families.

Violation magnitude increases with the degree of the differential operator.

A spectral mechanism underpins the onset of violations.

Abstract

Bulk-edge correspondence is a wide-ranging principle that applies to topological matter, as well as a precise result established in a large and growing number of cases. According to the principle, the distinctive topological properties of matter, thought of as extending indefinitely in space, are equivalently reflected in the excitations running along its boundary, when one is present. Indices encode those properties, and their values, when differing, are witness to a violation of that correspondence. We address such violations, as they are encountered in a hydrodynamic context. The model concerns a shallow layer of fluid in a rotating frame and provides a local description of waves propagating either across the oceans or along a coastline; it becomes topological when suitably modified at short distances. The edge index is sensitive to boundary conditions, as exemplified in earlier work, hence exhibiting a violation. Here we present classification of all (local, self-adjoint) boundary conditions and a parameterization of their manifold. They come in four families, distinguished in part by the degree of their underlying differential operators. Essentially, that degree counts the degrees of freedom of the hydrodynamic field that are constrained at the boundary by way of their normal derivatives. Generally, both the correspondence and its violation are typical. Within families though, the maximally possible amount of violation is increasing with its degree. Several indices of interest are charted for all boundary conditions. A single spectral mechanism for the onset of violations is furthermore identified. The role of a symmetry is investigated.