Abstract
Conventional Chern insulators rely on breaking time-reversal symmetry via magnetic fields or synthetic gauge fields. Here we introduce a fundamentally different paradigm: a static lattice without any gauge field becomes a Chern insulator solely through the cooperation of two non-Hermitian ingredients: on-site loss and non-reciprocal coupling. Neither effect alone suffices; only their synergy opens a topological gap and gives rise to robust chiral edge states with a nonzero Chern number. The underlying mechanism originates from a non-Hermitian chiral molecule formed by the lossy sites, whose dynamically dominant mode carries an orbital angular momentum that effectively generates a synthetic flux after the fast-decaying degrees of freedom are eliminated. Our results establish non-Hermitian cooperation as a versatile resource for inducing Chern topology without external fields or temporal modulations, opening a new route to topological phases in open classical and quantum systems.
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Publication details
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- Green open access
Cite this article
APA 7
Zhu, W., Wang, B., Xie, M., Zou, H. Y., Long, Y., Sun, H. X., Xue, H., & Ren, J. (2026). Non-Hermitian Cooperation Induced Chern Insulator. https://omanscience.com/en/articles/non-hermitian-cooperation-induced-chern-insulator
MLA 9
Zhu, Weiwei, et al. "Non-Hermitian Cooperation Induced Chern Insulator." https://omanscience.com/en/articles/non-hermitian-cooperation-induced-chern-insulator.
Chicago (author–date)
Zhu, Weiwei, Bingbing Wang, Mengxiang Xie, Hong-yu Zou, Yang Long, Hong-xiang Sun, Haoran Xue, and Jie Ren. 2026. "Non-Hermitian Cooperation Induced Chern Insulator." https://omanscience.com/en/articles/non-hermitian-cooperation-induced-chern-insulator.
Harvard
Zhu, W., Wang, B., Xie, M., Zou, H. Y., Long, Y., Sun, H. X., Xue, H. and Ren, J. (2026) 'Non-Hermitian Cooperation Induced Chern Insulator', Available at: https://omanscience.com/en/articles/non-hermitian-cooperation-induced-chern-insulator.
Vancouver
Zhu W, Wang B, Xie M, Zou HY, Long Y, Sun HX, et al. Non-Hermitian Cooperation Induced Chern Insulator. https://omanscience.com/en/articles/non-hermitian-cooperation-induced-chern-insulator
IEEE
W. Zhu, B. Wang, M. Xie, H. Y. Zou, Y. Long, H. X. Sun, H. Xue, and J. Ren, "Non-Hermitian Cooperation Induced Chern Insulator," https://omanscience.com/en/articles/non-hermitian-cooperation-induced-chern-insulator.