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Topological Criticality in the Chiral-Symmetric AIII Class at Strong Disorder

The chiral AIII symmetry class in the periodic table of topological insulators contains topological phases classified by a winding number $ν$ for each odd space-dimension. An open problem for this class is the characterization of the phases and phase-boundaries in the presence of strong disorder. In this work, we derive a covariant real-space formula for $ν$ and, using an explicit 1-dimensional disordered topological model, we show that $ν$ remains quantized and non-fluctuating when disorder is turned on, even though the bulk energy-spectrum is completely localized. Furthermore, $ν$ remains robust even after the insulating gap is filled with localized states, but when the disorder is increased even further, an abrupt change of $ν$ to a trivial value is observed. Using exact analytic calculations, we show that this marks a critical point where the localization length diverges. As such, in the presence of disorder, the AIII class displays a markedly different physics from everything known to date, with robust invariants being carried entirely by localized states and bulk extended states emerging from an absolutely localized spectrum. Detailed maps and a clear physical description of the phases and phase boundaries are presented based on numerical and exact analytic calculations.