Topological bound on structure factor

Abstract

We show that the static structure factor of general many-body systems with $U(1)$ symmetry has a lower bound determined only by the ground state Chern number. Our bound relies only on causality and non-negative energy dissipation, and holds for a wide range of systems. We apply our theory to (fractional) Chern insulators, (fractional) quantum spin Hall insulators, topological superconductors, and chiral spin liquids. Our results uncover a universal feature of topological phases beyond the quantized response.

5 pages, 2 figures for the main text and 5 pages, 1 figure for Supplemental Materials. Accepted to Physical Review Letters. References are added