Electromagnetic and Thermal Responses of Z Topological Insulators and Superconductors in Odd Spatial Dimensions

The relation between bulk topological invariants and experimentally observable physical quantities is a fundamental property of topological insulators and superconductors. In the case of chiral symmetric systems in odd spatial dimensions such as time-reversal invariant topological superconductors and topological insulators with sublattice symmetry, this relation has not been well understood. We clarify that the winding number which characterizes the bulk Z nontriviality of these systems can appear in electromagnetic and thermal responses in a certain class of heterostructure systems. It is also found that the Z nontriviality can be detected in the bulk chiral polarization, which is induced by magnetoelectric effects. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.076804