Topological classification and edge states of magnons in honeycomb ferromagnets

Abstract: We study the topological classification and related edge states of magnons in ferromagnets on honeycomb that can be described by a class of single-particle bosonic Bogoliubov-de Gennes (BdG) models. Both single layer and bilayer situations are considered. The calculations show that the existence and related topologies of these edge states are well captured by a class of non-Hermitian single or coupled Su-Schrieffer-Heeger chains models H(ky) parameterized by momentum ky, where the edge states can appear as the ground state for some cases. Interestingly, although the eigenproblem of bosonic BdG models is equivalent to the one of non-Hermitian systems, the conventional bulkedge correspondence for Hermitian systems is partially valid. The influence of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions between next nearest-neighbor spins are also discussed, which break the time-reversal symmetry and lead to a straight connection between edge states for magnonic systems and non-zero Chern number of non-Hermitian bulk two-dimensional systems.