Observation of the topological soliton state in the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model.

ABSTRACT: The Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model, which captures the most striking transport properties of the conductive organic polymer trans-polyacetylene, provides perhaps the most basic model system supporting topological excitations. The alternating bond pattern of polyacetylene chains is captured by the bipartite sublattice structure of the SSH model, emblematic of one-dimensional chiral symmetric topological insulators. This structure supports two distinct nontrivial topological phases, which, when interfaced with one another or with a topologically trivial phase, give rise to topologically protected, dispersionless boundary states. Here, using ⁸⁷Rb atoms in a momentum-space lattice, we realize fully tunable condensed matter Hamiltonians, allowing us to probe the dynamics and equili

SUBMITTER: Meier EJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5196433 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature