Topological instabilities in ac-driven bosonic systems

Abstract: Under non-equilibrium conditions, bosonic modes can become dynamically unstable with an exponentially growing occupation. On the other hand, topological band structures give rise to symmetry protected midgap states. In this letter, we investigate the interplay of instability and topology. Thereby, we establish a general relation between topology and instability under ac-driving. We apply our findings to create dynamical instabilities which are strongly localized at the boundaries of a finite-size system. As these localized instabilities are protected by symmetry, they can be considered as topological instabilities.