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Floquet generation of hybrid-order topology and Z 2 -like bipolar localization

Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Periodic driving offers a powerful tool to engineer topological phases and even induce phase transitions that are inaccessible in static settings. In this work, we demonstrate that a suitable driving protocol applied to the Benalcazar-Bernevig-Hughes model, a canonical quadrupolar insulator with a π -flux-induced projective PT symmetry, gives rise to a topological phase in which the dispersive first-order edge states and localized higher-order corner modes are shown to coexist at distinct quasienergies. Further, extending the scenario to nonreciprocal-hopping-induced non-Hermiticity, we uncover a Z 2 -like skin effect characterized by a sharp transition from a unipolar to a bipolar eigenstate-localized phase. Remarkably, this phenomenon, which is established as a prerogative for spinful systems, emerges here purely from the interplay between the embedded gauge structure and Floquet-renormalized symmetry constraints, without invoking physical spin degrees of freedom. Further, the broken bulk-boundary correspondence in this driven non-Hermitian setting can be restored via computing the two-dimensional generalized Brillouin zone, which we construct through a symmetry-reduced mapping onto an effective one-dimensional problem. The resulting non-Bloch invariants faithfully capture both the higher-order topology and the unipolar to bipolar transition. These findings reveal periodic driving as a versatile and controllable handle for sculpting the interplay of higher-order topology, symmetry transmutation, and non-Hermitian skin physics in a single unified platform.
DOI: 10.1103/rlrh-clk2
Language: English
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,625
OpenAlex ID: W7140229075
FWCI: 1.091
Cites: 81
Cited by: 1
Related to: 10