Topological chiral interface states beyond insulators

Lavi K. Upreti, P. Delplace

Published 2020-02-21Version 1

We show how to engineer a chiral spectral flow of interface states in a gapless system. Although the bulk bands touch -- thus making the topological indices of the bands ill-defined -- this spectral flow has a topological origin that makes it robust even when it coexists with the bulk bands. This phenomenon is illustrated with an adiabatically modulated photonic quantum walk.