Topological invariant for two-dimensional open systems

Abstract: We study the topology of two-dimensional open systems in terms of the Green's function. The Ishikawa-Matsuyama formula for the integer topological invariant is applied in open systems, which indicates the number difference of gapless edge bands arising from the poles and zeros of the Green's function. Meanwhile, we define another topological invariant via the single-particle density matrix, which works for general gapped systems and is equivalent to the former for the case of weak coupling to an environment. We also discuss two applications. For time-reversal-invariant insulators, the ${Z}_{2}$ index can be expressed by the invariant of each spin subsystem. As a second application, we consider the proximity effect when an ordinary insulator is coupled to a topological insulator.