Topological quantum criticality from multiplicative topological phases

Abstract

Symmetry-protected topological phases (SPTs) characterized by short-range entanglement include many states essential to understanding of topological condensed matter physics, and the extension to gapless SPTs provides essential understanding of their consequences. In this work, we identify a fundamental connection between gapless SPTs and recently-introduced multiplicative topological phases, demonstrating that multiplicative topological phases are an intuitive and general approach to realizing concrete models for gapless SPTs. In particular, they are naturally well-suited to realizing higher-dimensional, stable, and intrinsic gapless SPTs through combination of canonical topological insulator and semimetal models with critical gapless models in symmetry-protected tensor product constructions, opening avenues to far broader and deeper investigation of topology via short-range entanglement.