Boundary-obstructed topological phases of a massive Dirac fermion in a magnetic field

Abstract

It is known that in some higher-order topological insulators (HOTIs), topological phases are distinguished not by gap closings of bulk states but by those of edge states, which are called boundary-obstructed topological phases (BOTPs). In this paper, we construct an effective theory of the BOTP transition of two-dimensional (2D) Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model in a uniform magnetic field. At $\pi$ flux per plaquette, this model corresponds to the typical model of HOTIs proposed by Benalcazar, Bernevig, and Hughes (BBH). The BBH model can be approximated by Dirac fermions with two kinds of mass terms, which will be referred to as BBH Dirac insulator. To clarify the BOTP transition of the 2D SSH model around $\pi$ flux, we study such BBH Dirac insulator in the presence of a magnetic field. On the other hand, generically in continuum Dirac models, boundary conditions associated with the Hermiticity of Hamiltonians are known to play a crucial role in determining the edge states. We first demonstrate that for the conventional Dirac fermion with a single mass term, such boundary conditions indeed determine the edge states even in the presence of a magnetic field. Next, imposing boundary conditions consistent to the lattice terminations and symmetries of the BBH Hamiltonian as well as to the Hermiticity of the BBH Dirac insulator, we obtain the edge states of the BBH Dirac insulator in a magnetic field and reproduce its BOTP transition. In particular, we show that the unpaired Landau levels, which cause the spectral asymmetry, yield the edge states responsible for the BOTP transition.

arXiv comment12 pages, 7 figures, v2: Fig. 3 added, Sec. II B 2 added, v3: final version

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