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Updated: Jan 23, 2026

Determining Membrane Protein Topology Using Fluorescence Protease Protection FPP
Published on: April 20, 2015
Intertwined topological phases induced by emergent symmetry protection
Daniel González-Cuadra1, Alejandro Bermudez2, Przemysław R Grzybowski3,4
1ICFO-Institut de Ciències Fotòniques, Av. Carl Friedrich Gauss 3, 08860, Barcelona, Spain. daniel.gonzalez@icfo.eu.
Abstract:
The dual role played by symmetry in many-body physics manifests itself through two fundamental mechanisms: spontaneous symmetry breaking and topological symmetry protection. These two concepts, ubiquitous in both condensed matter and high energy physics, have been applied successfully in the last decades to unravel a plethora of complex phenomena. Their interplay, however, remains largely unexplored. Here we report how, in the presence of strong correlations, symmetry protection emerges from a set of configurations enforced by another broken symmetry. This mechanism spawns different intertwined topological phases, where topological properties coexist with long-range order. Such a singular interplay gives rise to interesting static and dynamical effects, including interaction-induced topological phase transitions constrained by symmetry breaking, as well as a self-adjusted fractional pumping. This work paves the way for further exploration of exotic topological features in strongly-correlated quantum systems.
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