Topological Modes Protected by Chiral and Two-Fold Rotational Symmetry in a Spring-Mass Model with a Lieb Lattice Structure

Abstract: We propose how to realize the topological modes, which correspond to topological zero modes for a quantum system, protected by chiral and rotation symmetry for a mechanical system. Specifically, we show the emergence of topological modes protected by chiral and two-fold rotational symmetry by a spring-mass system with a Lieb lattice structure and dents on the floor. Moreover, comparing the results of a tight-binding model, we have found the additional topological modes for our spring-mass model due to the extra degrees of freedoms. Our approach to realize the topological modes can be applied to other cases with rotation symmetry, e.g., a system of a honeycomb lattice with three-fold rotational symmetry.