Dynamics of quenched topological edge modes

Abstract

A characteristic feature of topological systems is the presence of robust gapless edge states. In this work the effect of time-dependent perturbations on the edge states is considered. Specifically we consider perturbations that can be understood as changes of the parameters of the Hamiltonian. These changes may be sudden or carried out at a fixed rate. In general, the edge modes decay in the thermodynamic limit, but for finite systems a revival time is found that scales with the system size. The dynamics of fermionic edge modes and Majorana modes are compared. The effect of periodic perturbations is also referred allowing the appearance of edge modes out of a topologically trivial phase.