Topological criticality in the chiral-symmetric AIII class at strong disorder.

The chiral AIII symmetry class in the classification table of topological insulators contains topological phases classified by a winding number ν for each odd space dimension. An open problem for this class is the characterization of the phases and phase boundaries in the presence of strong disorder. In this work, we derive a covariant real-space formula for ν and, using an explicit one-dimensional disordered topological model, we show that ν remains quantized and nonfluctuating when disorder is turned on, even though the bulk energy spectrum is completely localized.

Characterizing disordered fermion systems using the momentum-space entanglement spectrum.

The use of quantum entanglement to study condensed matter systems has been flourishing in critical systems and topological phases. Additionally, using real-space entanglement one can characterize localized and delocalized phases of disordered fermion systems. Here we instead propose the momentum-space entanglement spectrum as a means of characterizing disordered models.