Acoustic Higher-Order Weyl Semimetal with Bound Hinge States in the Continuum

Abstract: Higher-order topological phases have raised widespread interest in recent years with the occurrence of the topological boundary states of dimension two or more less than that of the system bulk. The higher-order topological states have been verified in gapped phases, in a wide variety of systems, such as photonic and acoustic systems, and recently also observed in gapless semimetal phase, such as Weyl and Dirac phases, in systems alike. The higher-order topology is signaled by the hinge states emerging in the common bandgaps of the bulk states and the surface states. In this Letter, we report our first prediction and observation of a new type of hinge states, the bound hinge states in the continuum (BHICs) bulk band, in a higher-order Weyl semimetal implemented in phononic crystal. In contrast to the hinge state in gap, which is characterized by the bulk polarization, the BHIC is identified by the nontrivial surface polarization. The finding of the topological BHICs broadens our insight to the topological states, and may stimulate similar researches in other systems such as electronic, photonic, and cold atoms systems. Our work may pave the way toward high-Q acoustic devices in application.