Topological marker currents in Chern insulators

Abstract

Topological states of matter exhibit many novel properties due to the presence of robust topological invariants such as the Chern index. These global characteristics pertain to the system as a whole and are not locally defined. However, local topological markers can distinguish between topological phases, and they can vary in space. In equilibrium, we show that the topological marker can be used to extract the critical behavior of topological phase transitions. Out of equilibrium, we show that the topological marker spreads via a flow of currents, with a bounded maximum propagation speed. We discuss the possibilities for measuring the topological marker and its flow in experiment.