Signatures of topological phase transition on a quantum critical line (2112.02485v3)

Abstract: Recently topological states of matter have witnessed a new physical phenomenon where both edge modes and gapless bulk coexist at topological quantum criticality. The presence and absence of edge modes on a critical line can lead to an unusual class of topological phase transition between the topological and non-topological critical phases. We explore the existence of this new class of topological phase transitions in a generic model representing the topological insulators and superconductors and we show that such transition occurs at a multicritical point i.e. at the intersection of two critical lines. To characterize these transitions we reconstruct the theoretical frameworks which include bound state solution of the Dirac equation, winding number, correlation factors and scaling theory of the curvature function to work for the criticality. Critical exponents and scaling laws are discussed to distinguish between the multicritical points which separate the critical phases. Entanglement entropy and its scaling in the real-space provide further insights into the unique transition at criticality revealing the interplay between fixed point and critical point at the multicriticalities.