Thouless pumping of large Chern numbers in optical Floquet quasicrystals
Phys. Rev. A 114, 043301 – Published 2 October, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/hrgz-hfxl
Abstract
Chern numbers are central to correlated and topological phenomena, yet most topological systems are associated with Chern numbers of order unity. Here we propose a scheme to achieve large Chern numbers in an optical Floquet quasicrystal with cold atoms, which can be directly measured via Thouless pumping. We study the quasienergy spectrum of the Floquet quasicrystal and characterize emergent Chern numbers using the gap labeling theorem. We further investigate the Thouless pumping in the Floquet quasicrystal at different driving frequencies and amplitudes, revealing the connection between transport features and the quasienergy spectrum. Our findings provide avenues for exploring rich topological dynamics in Floquet quasicrystals and realizing fractional Chern insulating states.
