Topologically nontrivial multicritical points
Phys. Rev. B 114, 065404 – Published 6 July, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/kcfm-n2zx
Abstract
Recently, the intriguing interplay between topology and quantum criticality has been unveiled in one-dimensional topological chains with extended nearest-neighbor couplings. In these systems, topologically distinct critical phases emerge with localized edge modes despite the vanishing bulk gap. In this work, we study the topological multicritical points at which distinct gapped and critical phases intersect. Specifically, we consider a topological chain with coupling up to the third nearest neighbors, which shows stable localized edge modes at the multicritical points. These points possess only nontrivial gapped and critical phases around them and are also characterized by the quadratic dispersion around the gap-closing points. We characterize the topological multicritical points in terms of the topological invariant obtained from the zeros of the complex function associated with the Hamiltonian. Further, we analyze the nature of zeros in the vicinity of the multicritical points by calculating the discriminants of the associated polynomial. The discriminant uniquely identifies the topological multicritical points and distinguishes them from the trivial ones. Moreover, we identify the underlying physical mechanism in terms of kinetic inversion in higher-order terms. We finally study the robustness of the zero-energy modes at the multicritical points at weak disorder strengths, and reveal the presence of a topologically nontrivial gapless Anderson-localized phase at strong disorder strengths.
