Topological Angular Momentum and Radiative Heat Transport in Closed Orbits

Abstract

Here, we study the role of topological edge states of light in the transport of thermally generated radiation in a closed cavity at a thermodynamic equilibrium. It is shown that even in the zero temperature limit - when the field fluctuations are purely quantum mechanical - there is a persistent flow of electromagnetic momentum in the cavity in closed orbits, deeply rooted in the emergence of spatially separated unidirectional edge state channels. It is highlighted the electromagnetic orbital angular momentum of the system is nontrivial, and that the energy circulation is towards the same direction as that determined by incomplete cyclotron orbits near the cavity walls. Our findings open new inroads in topological photonics and suggest that topological states of light can determine novel paradigms in the context of radiative heat transport.

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• Topological Photonics
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• PTD Symmetry Protected Scattering Anomaly in Optics
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• Negative spontaneous emission by a moving two-level atom
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Cited by in corpus (9)

• Topological theory of non-Hermitian photonic systems
• Theoretical constraints on reciprocal and non-reciprocal many-body radiative heat transfer
• Radiative heat flux through a topological Su-Schrieffer-Heeger chain of plasmonic nanoparticles
• Thermal near-field energy density and LDOS in topological 1D SSH chains and 2D SSH lattices of plasmonic nanoparticles
• Topological Materials for Near-Field Radiative Heat Transfer
• Spontaneous Rotational Symmetry Breaking in a Kramers Two-Level System
• Dynamical thermal near-field routing with the non-reciprocal Weyl semi-metal Co${}_3$Sn${}_2$S${}_2$
• On persistent energy currents at equilibrium in non-reciprocal systems
• Generalized coupled dipole method for thermal far-field radiation