Seminar

Topological phases of matter are identified by topological invariants and have strange properties, such that the bulk is insulating even while the surface is metallic. Transitions out of any such topological phase is usually characterized by discontinuous changes in topological invariants along with bulk gap closings. What happens to a topological system when the lattice it resides on is geometrically punctured? Are there signatures of the underlying geometrical transitions in quantum observables? In this talk, I will try to point out how some of these questions can be made a bit sharper and what our results seem to suggest. I will try to bring out the idea of a fractured topological phase and point out there may be some interesting bit of physics hiding in nature of geometrical disorder in topological phases.