Topological Equatorial Waves and Violation (or not) of the Bulk Edge Correspondence

Abstract: Atmospheric and oceanic mass transport near the equator display a well-studied asymmetry characterized by two modes moving eastward. This asymmetric edge transport is characteristic of interfaces separating two-dimensional topological insulators. The northern and southern hemispheres are insulating because of the presence of a Coriolis force parameter that vanishes only in the vicinity of the equator. A central tenet of topological insulators, the bulk edge correspondence, relates the quantized edge asymmetry to bulk properties of the insulating phases, which makes it independent of the Coriolis force profile near the equator. We show that for a natural differential Hamiltonian model of the atmospheric and oceanic transport, the bulk-edge correspondence does not always apply. In fact, an arbitrary quantized asymmetry can be obtained for specific, discontinuous, such profiles. The results are based on a careful analysis of the spectral flow of the branches of absolutely continuous spectrum of a shallow-water Hamiltonian. Numerical simulations validate our theoretical findings.