Krylov Edge Spectroscopy of Symmetry-Protected Topological Phases

Abstract

We introduce $Krylov$ $edge$ $spectroscopy$, a many-body operator-space protocol for detecting and classifying one-dimensional symmetry-protected topological phases from local boundary dynamics. A Hermitian boundary operator generates a semi-infinite Krylov hopping chain whose boundary weight obeys an exact zero-frequency normalizability criterion. Open-periodic, boundary-bulk, and symmetry-preserving boundary-perturbation tests identify protected boundary memory, while a finite-depth leakage residual certifies when an explicitly reconstructed operator is already near zero frequency. Classification minimizes the normalized commutator over symmetry-resolved boundary operators in fixed charge sectors. For bosonic $\mathbb{Z}_N \times \mathbb{Z}_N$ phases, the recovered endpoint charge gives the cohomology label. The method requires no explicit ground-state wavefunction, entanglement spectrum, or guessed dressed edge or string operator. For finite-range Hamiltonians, locality eliminates full-system exact diagonalization and guarantees thermodynamic-limit convergence at fixed Krylov depth. We demonstrate the protocol in cluster, clock, Haldane, and trivial spin-1 chains. In the exactly solvable cluster chain, the transition between the gapped topological and trivial phases manifests as a localization-delocalization transition of the Krylov edge mode on the Krylov chain. This transition occurs precisely at the bulk gap closing, and its localization-length exponent coincides with the Ising correlation-length exponent. Through operator Krylov dynamics, our work turns local boundary evolution into a direct spectroscopy of many-body topology.