The bulk-edge correspondence for curved interfaces

Abstract

The bulk-edge correspondence is a condensed matter theorem that relates the conductance of a Hall insulator in a half-plane to that of its (straight) boundary. In this work, we extend this result to domains with curved boundaries. Under mild geometric assumptions, we prove that the edge conductance of a topological insulator sample is an integer multiple of its Hall conductance. This integer counts the algebraic number of times that the interface (suitably oriented) enters the measurement set. This result provides a rigorous proof of a well-known experimental observation: arbitrarily truncated topological insulators support edge currents, regardless of the shape of their boundary.

49 pages, 15 Figures