Edge states for tight-binding operators with soft walls

Abstract

We study one- and two-dimensional periodic tight-binding models under the presence of a potential that grows to infinity in one direction, hence preventing the particles to escape in this direction (the soft wall). We prove that a spectral flow appears in these corresponding edge models, as the wall is shifted. We identity this flow as a number of Bloch bands, and provide a lower bound for the number of edge states appearing in such models.