Free Fermion frustration-free models have zero Hall conductance

Abstract: We give a new proof that translation-invariant free Fermion frustration-free models have zero Hall conductance. Our proof is analytic in nature and it uses the bulk-edge correspondence. The central argument, which holds beyond the translation-invariant situation, is that in frustration-free models, edge modes cannot merge into the ground state band. We give an example of a gapped frustration-free model that is nonetheless gapless on the half-plane.