Turning Number and the Geometry of Disorder-Induced Topology
Abstract
The geometry of momentum-space Hamiltonian maps derived from the zero-frequency single-particle Green's function provides a route to a refined topological characterization of quantum systems beyond the noninteracting clean limit. The central idea is to complement standard topological invariants by invariants that characterize the geometry of the map itself. As a paradigmatic example, we study the one-dimensional chiral Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model with disorder, where the topological Hamiltonian defines a planar Bloch loop. In addition to its conventional winding number, this loop possesses an integer turning number that characterizes the winding of its tangent vector. We identify turning-number transitions that occur while the topological Hamiltonian remains finite and spectrally gapped, driven solely by a vanishing tangent vector of the Bloch loop, and obtain an extended phase diagram with additional topological structure beyond the winding-number classification. Asymptotic analysis predicts the emergence and disorder dependence of the corresponding transition regime, in agreement with the numerical results. Our findings establish the geometry of momentum-space Hamiltonian maps as an additional source of topological structure beyond conventional classifications.
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BibTeX
@misc{emmrich2026turning,
title = {{Turning Number and the Geometry of Disorder-Induced Topology}},
author = {Lars Emmrich and Michael Potthoff},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.24637},
eprint = {2610.24637},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.24637},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Turning Number and the Geometry of Disorder-Induced Topology
AU - Lars Emmrich
AU - Michael Potthoff
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/17
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.24637
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.24637
AB - The geometry of momentum-space Hamiltonian maps derived from the zero-frequency single-particle Green's function provides a route to a refined topological characterization of quantum systems beyond the noninteracting clean limit. The central idea is to complement standard topological invariants by invariants that characterize the geometry of the map itself. As a paradigmatic example, we study the one-dimensional chiral Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model with disorder, where the topological Hamiltonian defines a planar Bloch loop. In addition to its conventional winding number, this loop possesses an integer turning number that characterizes the winding of its tangent vector. We identify turning-number transitions that occur while the topological Hamiltonian remains finite and spectrally gapped, driven solely by a vanishing tangent vector of the Bloch loop, and obtain an extended phase diagram with additional topological structure beyond the winding-number classification. Asymptotic analysis predicts the emergence and disorder dependence of the corresponding transition regime, in agreement with the numerical results. Our findings establish the geometry of momentum-space Hamiltonian maps as an additional source of topological structure beyond conventional classifications.
ER -