Ubiquitous topological materials protected by hidden partial symmetries
Abstract
Symmetries play a crucial role in protecting the topological phases of insulators, ensuring the robustness of their surface states against perturbations. Traditionally, these symmetries have to be obeyed by the system as a whole, which is a rather strong constraint. In this work, we demonstrate that topological effects can also be realized through a substantially weaker form of symmetry that we coin \emph{partial latent symmetries}. For these, invariance is required only at certain energy scales of an effective Hamiltonian, rather than for the object as a whole. Applying this idea, we construct weak-symmetry versions of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger and Benalcazar-Bernevig-Hughes models. These weak-symmetry models behave in many aspects just like their conventional brethren---in particular, they host robust edge states---, though the corresponding topological invariants are only \emph{approximately} quantized. We conclude this work by experimentally realizing Hermitian and non-Hermitian versions of such approximate topological insulators and probe their edge states. Overall, given the ubiquity of symmetry in all areas of physics and engineering, we foresee our work to serve as a cornerstone for exploring how conventional, strong symmetry requirements can be replaced by weak-symmetry ones.
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BibTeX
@misc{eek2026ubiquitous,
title = {{Ubiquitous topological materials protected by hidden partial symmetries}},
author = {Lumen Eek and Xuelong Chen and Malte Röntgen and Wenlong Gao and Cristiane Morais Smith},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.29028},
eprint = {2610.29028},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.29028},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Ubiquitous topological materials protected by hidden partial symmetries
AU - Lumen Eek
AU - Xuelong Chen
AU - Malte Röntgen
AU - Wenlong Gao
AU - Cristiane Morais Smith
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/21
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.29028
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.29028
AB - Symmetries play a crucial role in protecting the topological phases of insulators, ensuring the robustness of their surface states against perturbations. Traditionally, these symmetries have to be obeyed by the system as a whole, which is a rather strong constraint. In this work, we demonstrate that topological effects can also be realized through a substantially weaker form of symmetry that we coin \emph{partial latent symmetries}. For these, invariance is required only at certain energy scales of an effective Hamiltonian, rather than for the object as a whole. Applying this idea, we construct weak-symmetry versions of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger and Benalcazar-Bernevig-Hughes models. These weak-symmetry models behave in many aspects just like their conventional brethren---in particular, they host robust edge states---, though the corresponding topological invariants are only \emph{approximately} quantized. We conclude this work by experimentally realizing Hermitian and non-Hermitian versions of such approximate topological insulators and probe their edge states. Overall, given the ubiquity of symmetry in all areas of physics and engineering, we foresee our work to serve as a cornerstone for exploring how conventional, strong symmetry requirements can be replaced by weak-symmetry ones.
ER -