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  • Letter

Breakdown of boundary criticality and exotic topological semimetals in PT-invariant systems

Hong Wu1 and Jun-Hong An2,3,*

  • 1School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Chongqing 400065, China
  • 2School of Physical Science and Technology and Lanzhou Center for Theoretical Physics, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
  • 3Key Laboratory of Quantum Theory and Applications of MoE, Key Laboratory of Theoretical Physics of Gansu Province and Gansu Provincial Research Center for Basic Disciplines of Quantum Physics, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China

  • *Contact author: anjhong@lzu.edu.cn

Phys. Rev. B 112, L041101 – Published 1 July, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/xz4g-jlbg

Abstract

It was recently found that, going beyond the tenfold Altland-Zirnbauer symmetry classes and violating the bulk-boundary correspondence of the usual topological phases, PT-invariant systems support a real Chern insulator with the so-called boundary criticality, which forbids the transition between different orders of topological phases accompanied by the touching of bulk bands. Here, we find that periodic driving can break the boundary criticality of a PT-invariant system. Upon setting the system free from the boundary criticality, diverse first- and second-order topological phases absent in the static case are found in both the zero and π/T modes. In contrast to the usual Floquet ones defined on stroboscopic dynamics, our topological phases can only be characterized by the dynamical process of a whole driving period. The application of our result in a three-dimensional PT-invariant system permits us to discover exotic second-order Dirac and nodal-line semimetals with coexisting surface and hinge Fermi arcs. Enriching the family of topological phases in PT-invariant systems, our result provides a useful way to explore novel topological phases.

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