Charge conservation protected topological phases

Abstract

We discuss the relation between particle number conservation and topological phases. In four spatial dimensions, we find that systems belonging to different topological phases in the presence of a U(1) charge conservation can be connected adiabatically, i.e., without closing the gap, upon intermediately breaking this local symmetry by a superconducting term. The time reversal preserving topological insulator states in 2D and 3D which can be obtained from the 4D parent state by dimensional reduction inherit this protection by charge conservation. Hence, all topological insulators can be adiabatically connected to a trivial insulating state without breaking time reversal symmetry, provided an intermediate superconducting term is allowed during the adiabatic deformation. Conversely, in one spatial dimension, non-symmetry-protected topological phases occur only in systems that break U(1) charge conservation. These results can intuitively be understood by considering a natural embedding of the classifying spaces of charge conserving Hamiltonians into the corresponding Bogoliubov de Gennes classes.