Topological Anderson Insulators by homogenization theory

Abstract: A central property of (Chern) topological insulators is the presence of robust asymmetric transport along interfaces separating two-dimensional insulating materials in different topological phases. A Topological Anderson Insulator is an insulator whose topological phase is induced by spatial fluctuations. This paper proposes a mathematical model of perturbed Dirac equations and shows that for sufficiently large and highly oscillatory perturbations, the systems is in a different topological phase than the unperturbed model. In particular, a robust asymmetric transport indeed appears at an interface separating perturbed and unperturbed phases. The theoretical results are based on careful estimates of resolvent operators in the homogenization theory of Dirac equations and on the characterization of topological phases by the index of an appropriate Fredholm operator.