Extended edge modes and disorder preservation of a symmetry-protected topological phase out of equilibrium

Abstract

The time evolution of topological systems is an active area of interest due to their expected applications in fault-tolerant quantum computing. Here, we analyze the dynamics of a noninteracting spinless fermion chain in its topological phase, quenched out of equilibrium by a Hamiltonian belonging to the same symmetry class. Due to particle-hole symmetry, the bulk properties of the system remain intact throughout its evolution. However, the boundary properties may be drastically altered, with the initially localized Majorana edge modes extending across the chain. Up to a timescale $t^{\ast }$, identified by area-law behavior of the entanglement entropy, these extended edge modes are an example of exotic effects in topological systems out of equilibrium. Further, while local disorder can be utilized to preserve localization and increase $t^{\ast }$, we still identify nontrivial dynamics in the Majorana polarization and Loschmidt echo.

16 pages, 7 figures. Reformatted as a longer-form article by including, in the main text, some material previously in the supplementary materials. Additional details have also been added, including an extended discussion of the return rate where we isolate the boundary contribution

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