Topology of Bloch Bands from Cauchy Data

Abstract

In a previous work, the topology of inversion-symmetric one-dimensional periodic media was characterized through the pole-zero pattern of an impedance-like function associated with Bloch waves. This construction reproduces the Berry--Zak invariant and provides a criterion for topological interface states. In the present work, we give a geometric interpretation of this formalism. We show that poles and zeros arise naturally from the action of inversion symmetry on the projectivized space of Cauchy data. The corresponding Dirichlet and Neumann states are identified with the two fixed points of the induced $\mathbb Z_2$ action on the Riemann sphere. The key observation is that Bloch eigenvectors are naturally constructed on the universal covering of the Brillouin circle. The topology of the associated Real eigenline bundle is encoded in the action of the deck transformation group on lifted eigenvectors. This action is described by a monodromy sign $ρ\in\{\pm1\}$, determined by the inversion representations carried by the band at the fixed points of the Brillouin zone. We show that this monodromy defines a natural rank-one local system over the Brillouin circle. The corresponding Real line bundle is classified by its first Stiefel--Whitney class, which coincides with the associated $\mathbb Z_2$ pole-zero invariant. This establishes a geometric connection between the pole-zero formalism, Berry--Zak phases, Real bundles and local coefficient systems.