Bulk-Boundary Correspondence for Topological Insulators with Quantized Magneto-Electric Effect

Abstract

We study bulk-boundary correspondences and related surface phenomena stabilized by the second Chern number in three-dimensional insulators driven in adiabatic cycles. Magnetic fields and disorder effects are incorporated in our analysis using operator algebraic methods. We use the connecting maps between the $K$-theories of bulk and boundary algebras as engines for the bulk-boundary correspondences. We discovered that both the exponential and the index connecting maps are relevant for the context considered here as they lead to distinct experimentally observable surface phenomena, such as pumping and transfer of quantum surface Hall states or proximity induced Hall effect. The surface Hall physics of time-reversal symmetric topological insulators is also investigated using the new tools, which can model irrational magnetic fluxes and arbitrary large surface disorder.