Tim Hsieh, KITP, University of California, Santa Barbara. Professor Eun-Ah Kim, host.

Seminar Title: Bulk Topological Proximity Effect

Abstract: Existing proximity effects stem from systems with a local order parameter, such as a local magnetic moment or a local superconducting pairing amplitude.  In this talk, I will demonstrate that despite lacking a local order parameter, topological phases also may give rise to a proximity effect of a distinctively inverted nature.  I'll focus on a general construction in which a topological phase is extensively coupled to a second system, and I will argue that in many cases, the inverse topological order will be induced on the second system.  To support these arguments, I will rigorously establish this "bulk topological proximity effect" for all gapped free fermion topological phases and representative integrable models of interacting topological phases.  After presenting a terrace construction which illustrates the phenomenological consequences of this proximity effect, I will discuss generalizations beyond this framework, including how intrinsic topological order may also exhibit a variant of this effect.

Poster available.