Entanglement spectrum as a probe for the topology of a spin-orbit-coupled superconductor

Abstract

The classification of electron systems according to their topology has been at the forefront of condensed matter research in recent years. It has been found that systems of the same symmetry, previously thought of as equivalent, may in fact be distinguished by their topological properties. Moreover, the nontrivial topology found in some insulators and superconductors has profound physical implications that can be observed experimentally and can potentially be used for applications. However, characterizing a system's topology is not always a simple task, even for a theoretical model. When translation and other symmetries are present in a quadratic model, the topological invariants are readily defined and easily calculated in a variety of symmetry classes. However, once interactions or disorder come into play the task becomes difficult, and in many cases prohibitively so. The goal of this paper is to test whether the entanglement entropy and entanglement spectrum bare signatures of the system's topology. Using quadratic models of superconductors we demonstrate that these entanglement properties are sensitive to changes in topology.

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