Translation-invariant topological superconductors on a lattice

• Main Authors: Kou, Su-Peng (Author), Wen, Xiao-Gang (Contributor)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Physical Society, 2011-02-04T21:23:29Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

 In this paper we introduce four Z2 topological indices zeta k=0,1 at k=(0,0), (0,pi), (pi,0), and (pi,pi) characterizing 16 universal classes of two-dimensional superconducting states that have translation symmetry but may break any other symmetries. The 16 classes of superconducting states are distinguished by their even/odd numbers of fermions on even-by-even, even-by-odd, odd-by-even, and odd-by-odd lattices. As a result, the 16 classes topological superconducting states exist even for interacting systems. For noninteracting systems, we find that zeta k is the number of electrons on k=(0,0), (0,pi), (pi,0), or (pi,pi) orbitals (mod 2) in the ground state. For three-dimensional superconducting states with only translation symmetry, topological indices give rise to 256 different types of topological superconductors.