Real space diagnosis of bulk topological invariants

– 09/29 – 12:00pm – S213 K –

Abstract: Significant progress has been made to identify materials hosting topologically non-trivial band structures. Much of this progress is due to advancements in analysis of symmetry indicators. Despite this progress, only a handful of high-quality topological materials are under experimental control. Recent theoretical developments have shown the existence of exotic topological phases invisible to symmetry eigenvalues in experimentally relevant materials, requiring direct identification of the bulk topological invariant. I will present newly developed real-space tools for assignment of the bulk invariant in such systems. It is shown that these methods can be implemented in the presence of disorder and correlations. In addition, these methods can be incorporated into high-throughput DFT studies in the limit of weak correlations, revealing non-trivial topology in multiple experimentally synthesized materials.

---