A mathematical study of periodic band inversion

Abstract

We give a mathematical analysis of the periodic band inversion phenomenon observed by Tan--Devakul for an electron in a two-dimensional periodic potential coupled to a circularly polarized photon cavity mode. In the strong-coupling limit, we derive an effective Bloch Hamiltonian and prove convergence of the low-lying bands. For a cosine potential, we explain the periodic closing and reopening of the first spectral gap, prove the existence and generic persistence of Dirac cones at the gap-closing points, and compute the Chern numbers associated to isolated band clusters. We also show that higher isolated band clusters cannot persist in the small-coupling regime. Finally, we resolve an apparent sign discrepancy between Berry curvature computations and Chern numbers by tracking the descent from the covering space to the Brillouin torus.