Exponentially growing bulk Green functions as signature of nontrivial non-Hermitian winding number in one dimension

Abstract

A nonzero non-Hermitian winding number indicates that a gapped system is in a nontrivial topological class due to the non-Hermiticity of its Hamiltonian. While for Hermitian systems nontrivial topological quantum numbers are reflected by the existence of edge states, a nonzero non-Hermitian winding number impacts a system's bulk response. To establish this relation, we introduce the bulk Green function, which describes the response of a gapped system to an external perturbation on timescales where the induced excitations have not propagated to the boundary yet, and show that it will grow in space if the non-Hermitian winding number is nonzero. Such spatial growth explains why the response of non-Hermitian systems on longer timescales, where excitations have been reflected at the boundary repeatedly, may be highly sensitive to boundary conditions. This exponential sensitivity to boundary conditions explains the breakdown of the bulk-boundary correspondence in non-Hermitian systems: topological invariants computed for periodic boundary conditions no longer predict the presence or absence of boundary states for open boundary conditions.

14 pages, 4 figures. Part of a joint submission with arXiv:1901.11241

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• Green's functions of multiband non-Hermitian systems
• Exact formulas of the end-to-end Green's functions in non-Hermitian systems
• Universal scaling of Green's functions in disordered non-Hermitian systems
• Nontrivial worldline winding in non-Hermitian quantum systems
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• Abnormal Frequency Response Determined by Saddle Points in Non-Hermitian Crystal Systems
• Real-time edge dynamics of non-Hermitian lattices
• Unifying Anderson transitions and topological amplification in non-Hermitian chains
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• Decimation technique for open quantum systems: a case study with driven-dissipative bosonic chains
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