Topological insulators and the Kane–Mele invariant: Obstruction and localization theory

We present homotopy theoretic and geometric interpretations of the Kane–Mele invariant for gapped fermionic quantum systems in three dimensions with time-reversal symmetry. We show that the invariant is related to a certain 4-equivalence which lends it an interpretation as an obstruction to a block decomposition of the sewing matrix up to non-equivariant homotopy. We prove a Mayer–Vietoris Theorem for manifolds with [Formula: see text]-actions which intertwines Real and [Formula: see text]-equivariant de Rham cohomology groups, and apply it to derive a new localization formula for the Kane–Mele invariant. This provides a unified cohomological explanation for the equivalence between the discrete Pfaffian formula and the known local geometric computations of the index for periodic lattice systems. We build on the relation between the Kane–Mele invariant and the theory of bundle gerbes with [Formula: see text]-actions to obtain geometric refinements of this obstruction and localization technique. In the preliminary part we review the Freed–Moore theory of band insulators on Galilean spacetimes with emphasis on geometric constructions, and present a bottom-up approach to time-reversal symmetric topological phases.

The Gaussian free field and strict plane partitions

International audience We study height fluctuations around the limit shape of a measure on strict plane partitions. It was shown in our earlier work that this measure is a Pfaffian process. We show that the height fluctuations converge to a pullback of the Green's function for the Laplace operator with Dirichlet boundary conditions on the first quadrant. We use a Pfaffian formula for higher moments to show that the height fluctuations are governed by the Gaussian free field. The results follow from the correlation kernel asymptotics which is obtained by the steepest descent method.

A generalization of Mehta-Wang determinant and Askey-Wilson polynomials

International audience Motivated by the Gaussian symplectic ensemble, Mehta and Wang evaluated the $n×n$ determinant $\det ((a+j-i)Γ (b+j+i))$ in 2000. When $a=0$, Ciucu and Krattenthaler computed the associated Pfaffian $\mathrm{Pf}((j-i)Γ (b+j+i))$ with an application to the two dimensional dimer system in 2011. Recently we have generalized the latter Pfaffian formula with a $q$-analogue by replacing the Gamma function by the moment sequence of the little $q$-Jacobi polynomials. On the other hand, Nishizawa has found a q-analogue of the Mehta–Wang formula. Our purpose is to generalize both the Mehta-Wang and Nishizawa formulae by using the moment sequence of the little $q$-Jacobi polynomials. It turns out that the corresponding determinant can be evaluated explicitly in terms of the Askey-Wilson polynomials.