Topological Toda lattice and nonlinear bulk-edge correspondence

Abstract

The Toda lattice is a model of nonlinear wave equations allowing exact soliton solutions. It is realized by an electric circuit made of a transmission line with variable capacitance diodes and inductors. It has been generalized to the dimerized Toda lattice by introducing alternating bondings specified by a certain parameter $\lambda $, where it is reduced to the Toda lattice at $\lambda =0$. In this work, we investigate the topological dynamics of the voltage along the transmission line. It is demonstrated numerically that the system is topological for $\lambda <0$, while it is trivial for $\lambda >0$ with the phase transition point given by the original Toda lattice ($\lambda =0$). These topological behaviors are well explained by the chiral index familiar in the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model. The topological phase transition is observable by a significant difference between the dynamics of voltages in the two phases, which is explained by the emergence of the topological edge states. This is a bulk-edge correspondence in nonlinear systems. The dimerized Toda lattice is adiabaticaly connected to a linear system, which would be the reason why the topological arguments are valid. Furthermore, we show that the topological edge state is robust against randomness.