Weiyin Deng

Abstract Two-dimensional topological insulators for first order and higher order, characterized respectively by in-gap edge states and corner states, have attracted tremendous research interest. Different from them, two-dimensional topological metals exhibit topological boundary states in the absence of bulk bandgaps.

Abstract Majorana zero modes (MZMs) lie at the heart of fault-tolerant topological quantum computation, where their non-Abelian braiding statistics enable logical operations intrinsically immune to local perturbations and decoherence. Analogs of MZMs, known as Majorana-like zero modes (MLZMs), have recently been proposed in artificial lattices.

Abstract Non-Hermitian physics — characterized by complex band spectra — established a new paradigm in condensed matter systems and metamaterials. Combined to nonreciprocity, non-Hermitian gain can be arbitrarily injected in a system to manipulate its valley dynamics, leading to phenomena such as the amplified topological whispering gallery modes for acoustic lasing. Here, we reveal that the coupling loss can also be used to manipulate valley degrees of freedom in a phononic metamaterial.