Work

Accessing Chern Numbers From Bloch Eigenstates Singularities

Year: 2026

Type: preprint

Abstract: We propose two methods to extract the Chern numbers of the Bloch bands of a two dimensional insulator, and apply them to a photonic lattice experiment. These two methods require the knowledge of the complex-valued components of the Bloch eigenvectors, or their ratios. Unlike other tomography methods relying on the approximate reconstruction of the Berry curvature and its integration over the Brillouin zone, our methods boil down to the observation of phase vorticities in the eigensates structure. Those measurements, robust to experimental noise, yield exactly quantized values. One of the two methods exploits the non-normalization of the eigenmodes, making it particularly relevant for classical wave systems.

Source: arXiv (Cornell University)

DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2608.04998

Authors: Asapanna, Rajesh, Sokhen, Rabih El, Aceto, Paolo, Popescu-Pampu, Patrick, Guillot, Martin, Bloch, Jacqueline, Ravets, Sylvain, Hainaut, Clément, Amo, Alberto, Delplace, Pierre

Language: English

Topic: Topological Materials and Phenomena

Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W7196928642

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