Real-space effects of a quench in the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model and elusive dynamical appearance of the topological edge states

The topological phase of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model is known to exhibit two edge states that are topologically protected by the chiral symmetry. We demonstrate that, for any parameter quench performed on the half-filled SSH chain, the occupancy of each lattice site remains locked to 1/2 at any time, due to the additional time-reversal and charge conjugation symmetries. In particular, for a quench from the trivial to the topological phase, no signature of the topological edge states appears in real-space occupancies, independently of the quench protocol, the temperature of the pre-quench thermal state or the presence of chiral disorder. However, a suitably designed local quench from/to a SSH ring threaded by a magnetic flux can break these additional symmetries while preserving the chiral one. Then, real-space effects of the quench do appear and exhibit different dynamical features in the topological and in the trivial phases. Moreover, when the particle filling is different from a half and the pre-quench state is not insulating, the dynamical appearance of the topological edge states is visible already in a chain, it survives time averaging and can be observed also in the presence of chiral-breaking disorder and for instantaneous quenches.

Automated summary

For a half-filled SSH chain, the occupancy of each lattice site remains unchanged for any parameter quench due to the additional time-reversal and charge conjugation symmetries. However, a suitably designed local quench can break these additional symmetries and induce real-space dynamical effects, exhibiting different features in the topological and trivial phases.