Edge-of-edge States

Abstract

We study an exotic state which is localized only at an intersection of edges of a topological material. This "edge-of-edge" state is shown to exist generically. We construct explicitly generic edge-of-edge states in 5-dimensional Weyl semimetals and their dimensional reductions, such as 4-dimensional topological insulators of class A and 3-dimensional chiral topological insulators of class AIII. The existence of the edge-of-edge state is due to a topological charge of the edge states. The notion of the Berry connection is generalized to include the space of all possible boundary conditions, where Chern-Simons forms are shown to be nontrivial.