{"id":604536,"date":"2026-05-26T09:47:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T09:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/604536\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T09:47:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T09:47:22","slug":"fermi-surface-diagnosis-for-topological-superconductivity-with-s-wave-like-pairing-symmetries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/604536\/","title":{"rendered":"Fermi-surface diagnosis for topological superconductivity with s-wave-like pairing symmetries"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fermi surface formulas<\/p>\n<p>In this work, we focus on s-wave-like pairing symmetries, formally defined by the symmetry properties of the order parameter \u0394k. Let Uk(g) be a representation of a space group symmetry g. We say that the pairing symmetry is s-wave-like if \\({U}_{{{\\bf{k}}}}(g){\\Delta }_{{{\\bf{k}}}}{U}_{-{{\\bf{k}}}}^{\\top }(g)={\\Delta }_{g{{\\bf{k}}}}\\) for all symmetries in a given space group. It should be noted that the s-wave-like pairing symmetry does not necessarily mean that the system is a conventional s-wave superconductor. For example, consider a single orbital superconducting order \u0394k\u00a0=\u00a0(d(k) \u22c5 \u03c3)i\u03c3y under the mirror symmetry \\({{{\\mathcal{M}}}}_{z}\\) along the z-axis, where \\({{\\bf{d}}}({{\\bf{k}}})=(0,{{\\mathrm{i}}}\\sin {k}_{x},0)\\) and \u03c3i=0,x,y,z are Pauli matrices in spin space. While this is p-wave like, the pairing symmetry is s-wave like, as one can see \\({{\\rm{i}}}{\\upsigma }_{z}{\\Delta }_{{{\\bf{k}}}}{({{\\rm{i}}}{\\upsigma }_{z})}^{\\top }={\\Delta }_{{{{\\mathcal{M}}}}_{z}{{\\bf{k}}}}\\). Another representative example is s\u00b1-wave pairing.<\/p>\n<p>Topological invariants are often defined on subregions in momentum space. For convenience, we decompose the Brillouin zone into points, line segments, and polygons in a symmetric manner<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-action=\"reference anchor\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-test=\"citation-ref\" aria-label=\"Reference 68\" title=\"May, J. P. et al. Equivariant Homotopy and Cohomology Theory: Dedicated to the Memory of Robert J. Piacenza (American Mathematical Society, 1996).\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#ref-CR68\" id=\"ref-link-section-d2916108e1090\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">68<\/a>,<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-action=\"reference anchor\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-test=\"citation-ref\" aria-label=\"Reference 69\" title=\"Shiozaki, K. &amp; Ono, S., Atiyah-Hirzebruch spectral sequence for topological insulators and superconductors: E2 pages for 1651 magnetic space groups. &#010;                  https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2304.01827&#010;                  &#010;                 (2023).\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#ref-CR69\" id=\"ref-link-section-d2916108e1093\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">69<\/a>. See Fig.\u00a0<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"figure anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Fig2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2<\/a>(b) for an illustration of the decomposition. We assign an orientation to each component. For example, line segment a in Fig.\u00a0<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"figure anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Fig2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2<\/a>(b) is oriented from \u0393 to X. In this work, we consider topological invariants defined on the line segments.<\/p>\n<p>Fig. 2: Illustration of the model (<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"equation anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Equ10\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">10<\/a>) and (<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"equation anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Equ11\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">11<\/a>).<img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"figure-2-desc ai-alt-disclaimer-figure-2-1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/41467_2026_72811_Fig2_HTML.png\" alt=\"Fig. 2: Illustration of the model (10) and (11).\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"685\" height=\"312\"\/>The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.<\/p>\n<p>a shows the energy dispersion of the BdG Hamiltonian (<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"equation anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Equ11\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">11<\/a>). b shows decomposition of the Brillouin zone, Fermi surfaces (colored solid lines), and the pairing nodes (dashed lines). The solid black lines and arrows denote the line segments specified by the gray endpoints and their orientations. The red and blue colors in the figure indicate Fermi surfaces with mirror eigenvalues \u00a0+\u00a0i and \u00a0\u2212\u00a0i, respectively. The intersections of the Fermi surface and the pairing nodes correspond to the gapless points in (a). The parameters are set to be {t,\u00a0\u03bb,\u00a0\u03bc,\u00a0\u0394}\u00a0=\u00a0{\u00a0\u2212\u00a01,\u00a00.3,\u00a0\u2212\u00a01,\u00a00.3}.<\/p>\n<p>Before presenting our main results on the Fermi surfaces of the topological invariants, we introduce our basic assumptions on target systems. We always assume that superconductors are in the weak coupling regime. More precisely, we assume that the target superconducting system can be continuously deformed into a superconductor that possesses the following properties:<\/p>\n<p>                    (i)<\/p>\n<p>intraband pairings dominate, i.e., all interband pairings are negligible;<\/p>\n<p>                    (ii)<\/p>\n<p>the superconducting gap is negligible except on Fermi surfaces.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, we further assume that the following conditions are satisfied:<\/p>\n<p>                    (iii)<\/p>\n<p>all Fermi surfaces are minimally degenerate as allowed by symmetries;<\/p>\n<p>                    (iv)<\/p>\n<p>normal state energies at high-symmetry points are not at the Fermi level;<\/p>\n<p>                    (v)<\/p>\n<p>there is no superconducting node on all line segments, including their endpoints.<\/p>\n<p>The assumptions (iii) and (iv) usually hold for realistic systems.\u00a0The assumption (v) must be satisfied to define topological invariants on line segments.<\/p>\n<p>Under these five assumptions, intraband pairing potentials and Fermi velocities can determine the values of topological invariants defined on the line segments. To define intraband pairing potentials and Fermi velocities, we consider the m-th Fermi point at km and momenta k in its neighborhood. Let \\({\\Phi }_{{{\\bf{k}}},m}^{\\alpha }\\) be a matrix whose columns are eigenvectors of the normal conducting Hamiltonian hk with the energy \\({\\varepsilon }_{{{\\bf{k}}},m}^{\\alpha }\\), where \u03b1 is a label of an irreducible representation (irrep) \\({u}_{{{\\bf{k}}}}^{\\alpha }(g)\\). In other words, \\({\\Phi }_{{{\\bf{k}}},m}^{\\alpha }\\) satisfies the relations \\({h}_{{{\\bf{k}}}}{\\Phi }_{{{\\bf{k}}},m}^{\\alpha }={\\varepsilon }_{{{\\bf{k}}},m}^{\\alpha }{\\Phi }_{{{\\bf{k}}},m}^{\\alpha }\\) and \\({U}_{{{\\bf{k}}}}(g){\\Phi }_{{{\\bf{k}}},m}^{\\alpha }={\\Phi }_{{{\\bf{k}}},m}^{\\alpha }{u}_{{{\\bf{k}}}}^{\\alpha }(g)\\). Then, the intraband pairing potential is defined by a projected superconducting order <\/p>\n<p>$${\\tilde{\\Delta }}_{{{\\bf{k}}},m}^{\\alpha } := {[{\\Phi }_{{{\\bf{k}}},m}^{\\alpha }]}^{{\\dagger} }{\\Delta }_{{{\\bf{k}}}}{[U({{\\mathcal{T}}})]}^{*}{\\Phi }_{{{\\bf{k}}},m}^{\\alpha }.$$<\/p>\n<p>\n                    (1)\n                <\/p>\n<p> Here, \\(U({{\\mathcal{T}}})\\) is a unitary representation of time-reversal symmetry (TRS) satisfying \\(U({{\\mathcal{T}}}){[U({{\\mathcal{T}}})]}^{*}=-{\\mathbb{1}}\\), where \\({\\mathbb{1}}\\) is the identity matrix. The above intraband pairing satisfies the relations <\/p>\n<p>$${[{\\tilde{\\Delta }}_{{{\\bf{k}}},m}^{\\alpha }]}^{{\\dagger} }={\\tilde{\\Delta }}_{{{\\bf{k}}},m}^{\\alpha };\\,\\,{u}_{{{\\bf{k}}}}^{\\alpha }(g){\\tilde{\\Delta }}_{{{\\bf{k}}},m}^{\\alpha }{[{u}_{{{\\bf{k}}}}^{\\alpha }(g)]}^{{\\dagger} }={\\tilde{\\Delta }}_{{{\\bf{k}}},m}^{\\alpha }.$$<\/p>\n<p>\n                    (2)\n                <\/p>\n<p> Since \\({u}_{{{\\bf{k}}}}^{\\alpha }(g)\\) is irreducible, the intraband pairing is proportional to the identity matrix. In particular, when we consider the Fermi point km on the line segment l, we represent \\({\\tilde{\\Delta }}_{{{{\\bf{k}}}}_{m},m}^{\\alpha }\\) by <\/p>\n<p>$${\\tilde{\\Delta }}_{{{{\\bf{k}}}}_{m},m}^{\\alpha }={\\delta }_{m}^{(l,\\alpha )}{\\mathbb{1}}\\,\\,\\,({\\delta }_{m}^{(l,\\alpha )}\\in {\\mathbb{R}}),$$<\/p>\n<p>\n                    (3)\n                <\/p>\n<p> where \\({\\delta }_{m}^{(l,\\alpha )}\\) represents the intraband pairing potential at the m-th Fermi point with irrep \u03b1 on line segment l.<\/p>\n<p>The Fermi velocity is defined by the directional derivative of the energy. Suppose that we consider a line segment l connecting from kA to kB, and that the m-th Fermi point at km lies on this line segment. The Fermi velocity of the energy \\({\\varepsilon }_{{{\\bf{k}}},m}^{\\alpha }\\) is given by <\/p>\n<p>$${v}_{m}^{(l,\\alpha )} := {{{\\boldsymbol{\\nabla }}}}_{{{\\bf{k}}}}{\\varepsilon }_{{{\\bf{k}}},m}^{\\alpha }{| }_{{{\\bf{k}}}={{{\\bf{k}}}}_{m}}\\cdot {\\hat{{{\\bf{e}}}}}_{l},$$<\/p>\n<p>\n                    (4)\n                <\/p>\n<p> where \\({\\hat{{{\\bf{e}}}}}_{l}=({{{\\bf{k}}}}_{{\\mathrm{B}}}-{{{\\bf{k}}}}_{{\\mathrm{A}}})\/\\parallel {{{\\bf{k}}}}_{{\\mathrm{B}}}-{{{\\bf{k}}}}_{{\\mathrm{A}}}\\parallel\\).<\/p>\n<p>Based on these two quantities, we define a set of integer-valued quantities \\({\\{{{{\\mathcal{N}}}}_{(l,\\alpha )}\\}}_{l,\\alpha }\\) for a given system: <\/p>\n<p>$${{{\\mathcal{N}}}}_{(l,\\alpha )} := {\\sum }_{m=1}^{{n}_{(l,\\alpha )}}\\,{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}({v}_{m}^{(l,\\alpha )})\\frac{1-{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}\\,({\\delta }_{m}^{(l,\\alpha )})}{2}\\in {\\mathbb{Z}},$$<\/p>\n<p>\n                    (5)\n                <\/p>\n<p> where n(l,\u00a0\u03b1) is the number of minimally degenerate Fermi points with irrep \u03b1 on line segment l. In fact, this integer-valued quantity encodes the topological nature of superconducting phases under the above assumptions.<\/p>\n<p>Now, we are ready to provide concrete forms of Fermi-surface formulas of topological invariants. For each space group, there exist three types of topological invariants: (i) \\({\\mathbb{Z}}\\)-valued invariants \\({\\{{{{\\mathcal{W}}}}_{i}^{\\rm gapless}\\}}_{i=1}^{{N}_{\\rm gapless}}\\) to detect gapless points in two-dimensional subregions surrounded by line segments; (ii) \\({\\mathbb{Z}}\\)-valued invariants \\({\\{{{{\\mathcal{W}}}}_{i}^{\\rm gapped}\\}}_{i=1}^{{N}_{\\rm gapped}}\\) to capture gapped topological phases; (iii) \\({{\\mathbb{Z}}}_{\\lambda }\\)-valued invariants \\({\\{{{{\\mathcal{X}}}}_{i}\\}}_{i=1}^{M}\\) to identify gapped topological phases. It should be emphasized that both the number of defined topological invariants (Ngapless,\u00a0Ngapped,\u00a0M), and topological invariants themselves depend on a given space group. Notably, gapped topological phases detected by \\({\\{{{{\\mathcal{W}}}}_{i}^{\\rm gapped}\\}}_{i=1}^{{N}_{\\rm gapped}}\\) and \\({\\{{{{\\mathcal{X}}}}_{i}\\}}_{i=1}^{M}\\) must have protected gapless surface states. Furthermore, \\({\\{{{{\\mathcal{W}}}}_{i}^{\\rm gapless}\\}}_{i=1}^{{N}_{\\rm gapless}}\\) can detect all stable gapless phases in all space groups with s-wave-like pairing symmetries (See Supplementary Note\u00a0<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"supplementary material anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#MOESM1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2<\/a> for more details).<\/p>\n<p>Our Fermi-surface formulas of these invariants are given by <\/p>\n<p>$${{{\\mathcal{W}}}}_{i}^{\\rm gapless}=\t{\\sum }_{l,\\alpha }{w}_{i,(l,\\alpha )}^{\\rm gapless}{{{\\mathcal{N}}}}_{(l,\\alpha )}\\\\=\t{\\sum }_{l,\\alpha }{w}_{i,(l,\\alpha )}^{\\rm gapless}{\\sum }_{m=1}^{{n}_{(l,\\alpha )}}\\,{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}({v}_{m}^{(l,\\alpha )})\\frac{1-{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}\\,{({\\delta }_{m}^{(l,\\alpha )})}}{2},$$<\/p>\n<p>\n                    (6)\n                <\/p>\n<p>$${{{\\mathcal{W}}}}_{i}^{\\rm gapped}=\t{\\sum }_{l,\\alpha }{w}_{i,(l,\\alpha )}^{\\rm gapped}{{{\\mathcal{N}}}}_{(l,\\alpha )}\\\\=\t{\\sum }_{l,\\alpha }{w}_{i,(l,\\alpha )}^{\\rm gapped}{\\sum }_{m=1}^{{n}_{(l,\\alpha )}}\\,{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}({v}_{m}^{(l,\\alpha )})\\frac{1-{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}\\,{({\\delta }_{m}^{(l,\\alpha )})}}{2},$$<\/p>\n<p>\n                    (7)\n                <\/p>\n<p>$${{{\\mathcal{X}}}}_{i}=\t{\\sum }_{l,\\alpha }{x}_{i,(l,\\alpha )}{{{\\mathcal{N}}}}_{(l,\\alpha )}\\,\\,{{\\mathrm{mod}}}\\,\\lambda \\\\=\t{\\sum }_{l,\\alpha }{x}_{i,(l,\\alpha )}{\\sum }_{m=1}^{{n}_{(l,\\alpha )}}\\,{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}({v}_{m}^{(l,\\alpha )})\\frac{1-{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}\\,({\\delta }_{m}^{(l,\\alpha )})}{2}\\,\\,{{\\mathrm{mod}}}\\,\\lambda,$$<\/p>\n<p>\n                    (8)\n                <\/p>\n<p> where \\({w}_{i,(l,\\alpha )}^{\\rm gapless},{w}_{i,(l,\\alpha )}^{\\rm gapped},{x}_{i,(l,\\alpha )}\\in {\\mathbb{Z}}\\) represent contribution weights of irrep \u03b1 on line segment l for topological invariants. In other words, these integer-valued quantities tell us about two important things: which line segments and irreps are relevant for topological invariants, and how we should combine Fermi-point data \\({\\{{{{\\mathcal{N}}}}_{(l,\\alpha )}\\}}_{l,\\alpha }\\) to detect the topological nature of superconducting phases. For a given space group, we can systematically determine these contribution weights by Atiyah-Hirzebruch spectral sequence. See ref. <a data-track=\"click\" data-track-action=\"reference anchor\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-test=\"citation-ref\" aria-label=\"Reference 46\" title=\"Ono, S. &amp; Shiozaki, K. Towards complete characterization of topological insulators and superconductors: A systematic construction of topological invariants based on Atiyah-Hirzebruch spectral sequence. &#010;                  https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2311.15814&#010;                  &#010;                 (2024).\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#ref-CR46\" id=\"ref-link-section-d2916108e4984\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">46<\/a> for more details. For \\({{\\mathbb{Z}}}_{2}\\)-valued invariants, we can drop \\(\\,{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}\\,({v}_{m}^{(l,\\alpha )})\\) since n\u00a0=\u00a0\u2212\u00a0n mod 2 for an integer n. As a result, the formulas can be further simplified to <\/p>\n<p>$${{{\\mathcal{X}}}}_{i}={\\sum }_{l,\\alpha }{x}_{i,(l,\\alpha )}{\\sum }_{m=1}^{{n}_{(l,\\alpha )}}\\frac{1-\\,{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}\\,({\\delta }_{m}^{(l,\\alpha )})}{2}\\,\\,{{\\mathrm{mod}}}\\,\\,2.$$<\/p>\n<p>\n                    (9)\n                <\/p>\n<p>These formulas immediately give us the following insight. The quantities (<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"equation anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Equ6\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">6<\/a>)\u2013(<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"equation anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Equ9\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">9<\/a>) are always trivial for superconductors whose intraband pairings have the same sign everywhere. This means that superconductors in the BCS limit, which can be connected to the vacuum without closing gap, cannot have nontrivial values of Eqs. (<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"equation anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Equ6\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">6<\/a>)\u2013(<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"equation anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Equ9\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">9<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>We make three remarks on our formulas. First, our Fermi-surface formulas are well-defined for a given decomposition, including the orientations of line segments, of the Brillouin zone in a space group. In\u00a0<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"supplementary material anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#MOESM1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Supplementary Information<\/a>, we provide our formulas together with all line segments we used for all layer groups and space groups. If we adopt a different decomposition, we may have physically equivalent but different forms of the formulas. This is because changing the decomposition can change the contribution weights in general. Next, topological invariants for gapped phases, \\({\\{{{{\\mathcal{W}}}}_{i}^{\\rm {gapped}}\\}}_{i=1}^{{N}_{\\rm {gapped}}}\\) and \\({\\{{{{\\mathcal{X}}}}_{i}\\}}_{i=1}^{M}\\), are meaningful only when invariants for gapless points, \\({\\{{{{\\mathcal{W}}}}_{i}^{\\rm {gapless}}\\}}_{i=1}^{{N}_{\\rm {gapless}}}\\), are all trivial. Lastly, topological invariants defined on higher-dimensional subspaces would be required for gapped topological phases that cannot be detected by our formulas. For example, detecting the nonzero three-dimensional winding number \\({w}_{3{{\\rm{D}}}}\\in {\\mathbb{Z}}\\) requires information on the entire three-dimensional Brillouin zone<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-action=\"reference anchor\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-test=\"citation-ref\" aria-label=\"Reference 70\" title=\"Qi, X.-L., Hughes, T. L. &amp; Zhang, S.-C. Topological invariants for the Fermi surface of a time-reversal-invariant superconductor. Phys. Rev. B 81, 134508 (2010).\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#ref-CR70\" id=\"ref-link-section-d2916108e5543\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">70<\/a>. Nonetheless, our Fermi surface formula can still detect \\({w}_{3{{\\rm{D}}}}\\,{{\\mathrm{mod}}}\\,\\,n\\) (where n depends on the space group), as seen below. This is similar to the situation for symmetry indicators<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-action=\"reference anchor\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-test=\"citation-ref\" aria-label=\"Reference 57\" title=\"Po, H. C., Vishwanath, A. &amp; Watanabe, H. Symmetry-based indicators of band topology in the 230 space groups. Nat. Commun. 8, 50 (2017).\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#ref-CR57\" id=\"ref-link-section-d2916108e5588\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">57<\/a>,<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-action=\"reference anchor\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-test=\"citation-ref\" aria-label=\"Reference 58\" title=\"Bradlyn, B. et al. Topological quantum chemistry. Nature 547, 298 (2017).\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#ref-CR58\" id=\"ref-link-section-d2916108e5591\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">58<\/a>,<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-action=\"reference anchor\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-test=\"citation-ref\" aria-label=\"Reference 71\" title=\"Fang, C., Gilbert, M. J. &amp; Bernevig, B. A. Bulk topological invariants in noninteracting point group symmetric insulators. Phys. Rev. B 86, 115112 (2012).\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#ref-CR71\" id=\"ref-link-section-d2916108e5594\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">71<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Examples<\/p>\n<p>Here, we demonstrate how it works through three theoretical models constructed by the real-space construction method and one realistic model from real material.<\/p>\n<p>First, we consider a quasi-two-dimensional gapless superconductor in the layer group p11m. This layer group is generated by the mirror symmetry \\({{\\mathcal{M}}}_{z}=\\{{M}_{z}|(000)\\}\\) and translation symmetries along x- and y-direction. The decomposition of the Brillouin zone is shown in Fig.\u00a0<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"figure anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Fig2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2<\/a>(b). The normal state Hamiltonian for the superconductor is <\/p>\n<p>$${h}_{{{\\bf{k}}}}=t(\\cos {k}_{x}+\\cos {k}_{y}){s}_{0}+\\lambda (\\sin {k}_{x}+\\sin {k}_{y}){s}_{3},$$<\/p>\n<p>\n                    (10)\n                <\/p>\n<p> and the corresponding BdG Hamiltonian takes the form <\/p>\n<p>$${H}_{{{\\bf{k}}}}^{\\rm {BdG}}=[{h}_{{{\\bf{k}}}}-\\mu ]{\\kappa }_{3}+{\\Delta }_{\\rm {sc}}(\\sin {k}_{x}+\\sin {k}_{y}){s}_{1}{\\kappa }_{1},$$<\/p>\n<p>\n                    (11)\n                <\/p>\n<p> where the Pauli matrices sj and \u03baj\u2009(j\u00a0=\u00a00,\u00a01,\u00a02,\u00a03) stand for spins and the Nambu spinor. In addition to TRS and mirror symmetry \\({{{\\mathcal{M}}}}_{z}\\), the BdG Hamiltonian inherently possesses particle-hole symmetry \\({{\\mathcal{C}}}\\). For the above BdG Hamiltonian, their representations are given by <\/p>\n<p>$${U}^{\\rm {BdG}}({{\\mathcal{T}}})={{\\rm{i}}}{s}_{2},\\,{U}^{\\rm {BdG}}({{\\mathcal{C}}})={\\kappa }_{1},\\,{U}^{\\rm {BdG}}({{{\\mathcal{M}}}}_{z})={{\\rm{i}}}{\\kappa }_{3}{s}_{3}.$$<\/p>\n<p>\n                    (12)\n                <\/p>\n<p> The pairing term \\({\\Delta }_{{{\\bf{k}}}}={\\Delta }_{{{\\rm{sc}}}}(\\sin {k}_{x}+\\sin {k}_{y}){s}_{1}\\) remains invariant under mirror symmetry \\({{{\\mathcal{M}}}}_{z}\\): \\({U}_{{{\\bf{k}}}}({{{\\mathcal{M}}}}_{z}){\\Delta }_{{{\\bf{k}}}}{U}_{{{\\bf{k}}}}^{{{\\top }}}=\\Delta_{{{{\\mathcal{M}}}}_{z}{\\bf{k}}}\\), where \\({U}_{{{\\bf{k}}}}({{M}}_{z})\\) is the representation of the mirror symmetry in the normal phase. Therefore, the pairing exhibits the s-wave-like pairing symmetry. As shown in Fig.\u00a0<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"figure anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Fig2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2<\/a>(a), the energy spectrum of \\({H}_{{{\\bf{k}}}}^{\\rm {BdG}}\\)(<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"equation anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Equ11\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">11<\/a>) has two superconducting gapless points.<\/p>\n<p>Our formula for \\({\\mathbb{Z}}\\)-valued invariants can detect these gapless points. Using Eq. (<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"equation anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Equ6\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">6<\/a>), we find the formula <\/p>\n<p>$${{{\\mathcal{W}}}}_{1}^{\\rm gapless}=\t{\\sum }_{\\alpha=\\pm }\\alpha \\,\\left[{\\sum }_{m=1}^{{n}_{(c,\\alpha )}}\\,{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}({v}_{m}^{(c,\\alpha )})\\frac{1-{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}\\,({\\delta }_{m}^{(c,\\alpha )})}{2} \\right. \\\\ \t\\left. -{\\sum }_{m=1}^{{n}_{(a,\\alpha )}}\\,{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}({v}_{m}^{(a,\\alpha )})\\frac{1-{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}\\,({\\delta }_{m}^{(a,\\alpha )})}{2}\\right],$$<\/p>\n<p>\n                    (13)\n                <\/p>\n<p> where \u03b1\u00a0=\u00a0\u00b1\u00a0means the mirror eigenvalue \u00a0\u00b1\u00a0i for eigenstates of the normal state Hamiltonian (<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"equation anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Equ10\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">10<\/a>). The signs of Fermi velocities v(a,\u00a0\u00b1) on the line segment a are positive. According to the sign of \u03b4k shown in Fig.\u00a0<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"figure anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Fig2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2<\/a>(b), we have \\({{{\\mathcal{W}}}}^{\\rm {gapless}}=-1\\). In fact, the invariant is equivalent to the mirror winding number defined on a loop (\u00a0\u2212\u00a0\u03c0,\u00a00)\u00a0\u2192\u00a0(\u03c0,\u00a00)\u00a0\u2192\u00a0(\u03c0,\u00a0\u03c0)\u00a0\u2192\u00a0(\u00a0\u2212\u00a0\u03c0,\u00a0\u03c0)\u00a0\u2192\u00a0(\u00a0\u2212\u00a0\u03c0,\u00a00). The nontrivial mirror winding number indicates the existence of gapless points inside the loop<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-action=\"reference anchor\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-test=\"citation-ref\" aria-label=\"Reference 72\" title=\"Zhang, F., Kane, C. L. &amp; Mele, E. J. Topological mirror superconductivity. Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 056403 (2013).\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#ref-CR72\" id=\"ref-link-section-d2916108e7073\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">72<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Next, we consider a gapped topological superconductor (TSC) in layer group p21\/b11 to show that our formulas can be used even when the formula in ref. <a data-track=\"click\" data-track-action=\"reference anchor\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-test=\"citation-ref\" aria-label=\"Reference 70\" title=\"Qi, X.-L., Hughes, T. L. &amp; Zhang, S.-C. Topological invariants for the Fermi surface of a time-reversal-invariant superconductor. Phys. Rev. B 81, 134508 (2010).\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#ref-CR70\" id=\"ref-link-section-d2916108e7088\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">70<\/a> cannot. Generators of this layer group are glide symmetry \\({{{\\mathcal{G}}}}_{x}=\\{{M}_{x}| (\\frac{1}{2}\\frac{1}{2}0)\\}\\), inversion symmetry \\({{\\mathcal{I}}}=\\{I| (000)\\}\\), and translation symmetry along x-direction. In the presence of inversion symmetry and TRS, Fermi surfaces in spinful electronic systems must be at least twofold degenerate. Furthermore, topological invariants for class DIII in the tenfold classification<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-action=\"reference anchor\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-test=\"citation-ref\" title=\"Schnyder, A. P., Ryu, S., Furusaki, A. &amp; Ludwig, A. W. W. Classification of topological insulators and superconductors in three spatial dimensions. Phys. Rev. B 78, 195125 (2008).\" href=\"#ref-CR73\" id=\"ref-link-section-d2916108e7228\">73<\/a>,<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-action=\"reference anchor\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-test=\"citation-ref\" title=\"Kitaev, A. Periodic table for topological insulators and superconductors. AIP Conf. Proc. 1134, 22 (2009).\" href=\"#ref-CR74\" id=\"ref-link-section-d2916108e7228_1\">74<\/a>,<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-action=\"reference anchor\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-test=\"citation-ref\" aria-label=\"Reference 75\" title=\"Ryu, S., Schnyder, A. P., Furusaki, A. &amp; Ludwig, A. W. W. Topological insulators and superconductors: tenfold way and dimensional hierarchy. N. J. Phys. 12, 065010 (2010).\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#ref-CR75\" id=\"ref-link-section-d2916108e7231\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">75<\/a> are also trivial for even-parity pairings. Therefore, this symmetry setting is out of the scope of ref. <a data-track=\"click\" data-track-action=\"reference anchor\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-test=\"citation-ref\" aria-label=\"Reference 70\" title=\"Qi, X.-L., Hughes, T. L. &amp; Zhang, S.-C. Topological invariants for the Fermi surface of a time-reversal-invariant superconductor. Phys. Rev. B 81, 134508 (2010).\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#ref-CR70\" id=\"ref-link-section-d2916108e7235\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">70<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Here, we describe our model in which there are four sublattice degrees of freedom labeled by (\u03c4z,\u00a0\u03c3z)\u00a0=\u00a0(\u00a0\u00b1\u00a01,\u00a0\u00b1\u00a01). Their coordinates in a unit cell are specified by \\((x,y)=\\frac{1}{4}[(2-{\\tau }_{z})(1,0)+(1-{\\sigma }_{z})(0,1)]\\) [see Fig.\u00a0<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"figure anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Fig3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">3<\/a>(a)]. According to ref. <a data-track=\"click\" data-track-action=\"reference anchor\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-test=\"citation-ref\" aria-label=\"Reference 45\" title=\"Ono, S., Shiozaki, K. &amp; Watanabe, H. Classification of time-reversal symmetric topological superconducting phases for conventional pairing symmetries. Phys. Rev. B 109, 214502 (2024).\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#ref-CR45\" id=\"ref-link-section-d2916108e7399\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">45<\/a>, the classification of gapped topological phases is \\({{\\mathbb{Z}}}_{2}\\), whose generator is constructed by placing one-dimensional TSCs along x\u00a0=\u00a01\/4 and x\u00a0=\u00a03\/4 in each unit cell. To realize this, we consider a model whose normal state Hamiltonian is given by <\/p>\n<p>$${h}_{{{\\bf{k}}}}=t({\\Gamma }_{010}+\\cos {k}_{y}{\\Gamma }_{010}+\\sin {k}_{y}{\\Gamma }_{020}),$$<\/p>\n<p>\n                    (14)\n                <\/p>\n<p> and the BdG Hamiltonian is <\/p>\n<p>$${H}_{{{\\bf{k}}}}^{\\rm {BdG}}=[{h}_{{{\\bf{k}}}}-\\mu ]{\\kappa }_{3}+2{\\Delta }_{{\\mathrm{sc}}}\\sin {k}_{y}{\\Gamma }_{301}{\\kappa }_{1},$$<\/p>\n<p>\n                    (15)\n                <\/p>\n<p> where \u0393ijk:=\u00a0\u03c4i \u2297 \u03c3j \u2297 sk(i,\u00a0j,\u00a0k\u00a0=\u00a00,\u00a01,\u00a02,\u00a03). As mentioned above, the minimal degeneracy of states is twofold at each momentum. However, the Fermi surfaces of hk in Eq. (<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"equation anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Equ14\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">14<\/a>) are fourfold degenerate, which violates assumption (iii), as indicated by the gray dashed lines in Fig.\u00a0<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"figure anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Fig3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">3<\/a>(b). This violation can be easily resolved by introducing symmetry-allowed perturbations that are small enough not to change any topology, as shown by the solid gray lines in Fig.\u00a0<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"figure anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Fig3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">3<\/a>(b).<\/p>\n<p>Fig. 3: Illustration of the model in layer group p21\/b11.<img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"figure-3-desc ai-alt-disclaimer-figure-3-1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/41467_2026_72811_Fig3_HTML.png\" alt=\"Fig. 3: Illustration of the model in layer group p21\/b11.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"685\" height=\"347\"\/>The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.<\/p>\n<p>a Real-space description of the model. The red shaded region indicates the unit cell. The red and blue solid circles denote the four sublattices labeled by (\u03c4z,\u00a0\u03c3z)\u00a0=\u00a0(\u00a0\u00b1\u00a01,\u00a0\u00b1\u00a01) in the unit cell. The solid (dashed) arrows represent the hopping between the sublattice degrees in the normal (pairing) part of the BdG Hamiltonian (<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"equation anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Equ15\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">15<\/a>). b Fermi surfaces for the Hamiltonian (<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"equation anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Equ14\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">14<\/a>). The gray solid (dashed) lines show the normal-state Fermi surfaces with (without) symmetry-allowed perturbations. The red and blue colors mean states with glide eigenvalue \\(+i{e}^{-i{k}_{y}\/2}\\) and \\(-i{e}^{-i{k}_{y}\/2}\\), respectively. The parameters are set to be {t,\u00a0\u03bc}\u00a0=\u00a0{\u00a0\u2212\u00a01,\u00a01}.<\/p>\n<p>The \\({{\\mathbb{Z}}}_{2}\\) topology can be diagnosed by our formula for \\({{\\mathbb{Z}}}_{2}\\)-valued invariant in Eq. (<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"equation anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Equ9\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">9<\/a>). The decomposition of the Brillouin zone is shown in Fig.\u00a0<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"figure anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Fig3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">3<\/a>(b). Then, the formula is given by <\/p>\n<p>$${{{\\mathcal{X}}}}_{1}={\\sum }_{\\alpha=\\pm }{\\sum }_{m=1}^{{n}_{(c,\\alpha )}}\\frac{1-\\,{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}({\\delta }_{m}^{(c,\\alpha )})}{2}+{\\sum }_{\\beta=\\pm }{\\sum }_{m=1}^{{n}_{(d,\\beta )}}\\frac{1-{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}\\,({\\delta }_{m}^{(d,\\beta )})}{2},$$<\/p>\n<p>\n                    (16)\n                <\/p>\n<p> where \u03b1\u00a0=\u00a0\u00b1\u00a0represents the glide eigenvalue \\(\\pm {{\\rm{ie}}}^{-i{k}_{y}\/2}\\) on the line segment c, and \u03b2\u00a0=\u00a0\u00b1\u00a0denotes the screw symmetry \\({{{\\mathcal{S}}}}_{x}={{{\\mathcal{G}}}}_{x}{{\\mathcal{I}}}\\) eigenvalue \\(\\pm {{\\rm{ie}}}^{-i{k}_{x}\/2}\\) on the line segment d. According to the sign of \u03b4k shown in Fig.\u00a0<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"figure anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Fig3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">3<\/a>(b), we have \\({{\\mathcal{X}}}=1\\) mod 2.<\/p>\n<p>Last, we discuss a strong TSC in space group P41 to show that our formula can inform the three-dimensional winding number w3D modulo four. This space group is generated by fourfold screw symmetry \\({{{\\mathcal{S}}}}_{4z}=\\{{C}_{4z}| (00\\frac{1}{4})\\}\\) and translation symmetries along x- and y-directions.<\/p>\n<p>Our model is described as follows. There are four sublattice degrees of freedom in a unit cell, whose coordinates in a unit cell are (x,\u00a0y,\u00a0z)\u00a0=\u00a0(0,\u00a00,\u00a00),\u00a0(0,\u00a00,\u00a01\/4),\u00a0(0,\u00a00,\u00a01\/2),\u00a0and (0,\u00a00,\u00a03\/4), labeled as 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively. The normal state Hamiltonian is constructed as <\/p>\n<p>$${\\hat{{{\\mathcal{H}}}}}_{0}=\t{\\sum }_{s,{{\\bf{R}}}}{\\sum }_{i=1}^{4}-\\frac{t}{2}({\\hat{c}}_{si{{\\bf{R}}}+{{\\bf{a}}}}^{{\\dagger} }{\\hat{c}}_{si{{\\bf{R}}}}+{\\hat{c}}_{si{{\\bf{R}}}+{{\\bf{b}}}}^{{\\dagger} }{\\hat{c}}_{si{{\\bf{R}}}})+h.c.\\\\ \t+{\\sum }_{s,{{\\bf{R}}}}-\\frac{t}{2}({\\hat{c}}_{s1{{\\bf{R}}}}^{{\\dagger} }{\\hat{c}}_{s2{{\\bf{R}}}}+{\\hat{c}}_{s2{{\\bf{R}}}}^{{\\dagger} }{\\hat{c}}_{s3{{\\bf{R}}}}+{\\hat{c}}_{s4{{\\bf{R}}}}^{{\\dagger} }{\\hat{c}}_{s3{{\\bf{R}}}})+h.c.\\\\ \t+ {\\sum }_{s,{{\\bf{R}}}}-\\frac{t}{2}{\\hat{c}}_{s4{{\\bf{R}}}+{{\\bf{c}}}}^{{\\dagger} }{\\hat{c}}_{s1{{\\bf{R}}}}+h.c.,{\\sum }_{s,{{\\bf{R}}},i}{\\hat{c}}_{si{{\\bf{R}}}+{{\\bf{c}}}}^{{\\dagger} }{\\hat{c}}_{si{{\\bf{R}}}},$$<\/p>\n<p>\n                    (17)\n                <\/p>\n<p> where the \\({\\widehat{c}}_{si{{\\bf{R}}}}\\,({\\widehat{c}}_{si{{\\bf{R}}}}^{{\\dagger} })\\) is the annihilation (creation) operator of an electron at the i-th sublattice with spin s in the unit cell at R. Also, a,\u00a0b, and c are the primitive lattice vectors along x-, y-, and z-direction, respectively. The pairing term is given by <\/p>\n<p>$$\\hat{\\Delta }=\t{\\sum }_{s,{{\\bf{R}}}}-\\frac{i}{2}{\\Delta }_{{\\mathrm{sc}}}({\\hat{c}}_{s1{{\\bf{R}}}}^{{\\dagger} }{\\hat{c}}_{\\overline{s}2{{\\bf{R}}}}^{{\\dagger} }+{\\hat{c}}_{s4{{\\bf{R}}}}^{{\\dagger} }{\\hat{c}}_{\\overline{s}3{{\\bf{R}}}}^{{\\dagger} }+{\\hat{c}}_{s2{{\\bf{R}}}}^{{\\dagger} }{\\hat{c}}_{\\overline{s}3{{\\bf{R}}}}^{{\\dagger} })+h.c.\\\\ \t+{\\sum }_{s,{{\\bf{R}}}}\\frac{i}{2}{\\Delta }_{{\\mathrm{sc}}}({\\hat{c}}_{s1{{\\bf{R}}}}^{{\\dagger} }{\\hat{c}}_{\\overline{s}4{{\\bf{R}}}+{{\\bf{c}}}}^{{\\dagger} }-{\\sum }_{i=1}^{4}s{\\hat{c}}_{si{{\\bf{R}}}}^{{\\dagger} }{\\widehat{c}}_{si{{\\bf{R}}}+{{\\bf{a}}}}^{{\\dagger} })+h.c.\\\\ \t+{\\sum }_{s,{{\\bf{R}}}}{\\sum }_{i=1}^{4}\\frac{1}{2}{\\Delta }_{{\\mathrm{sc}}}{\\widehat{c}}_{si{{\\bf{R}}}}^{{\\dagger} }{\\widehat{c}}_{si{{\\bf{R}}}+{{\\bf{b}}}}^{{\\dagger} }-h.c.$$<\/p>\n<p>\n                    (18)\n                <\/p>\n<p> with s and \\(\\overline{s}\\) being the opposite spin. It is easy to check the system described by \\({\\hat{{{\\mathcal{H}}}}}_{\\rm BdG}={\\hat{{{\\mathcal{H}}}}}_{0}+\\hat{\\Delta }\\) has the nonzero three-dimensional winding number w3D\u00a0=\u00a01.<\/p>\n<p>Here, we compute the \\({{\\mathbb{Z}}}_{8}\\)-valued invariant by our formula (<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"equation anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Equ8\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">8<\/a>): <\/p>\n<p>$${{{\\mathcal{X}}}}_{3}=\t{\\sum }_{l=e,g}{\\sum }_{\\alpha=1,3,5,7}(4-\\alpha ){\\sum }_{m=1}^{{n}_{(l,\\alpha )}}\\,{{\\rm{sgn}}}({v}_{m}^{(l,\\alpha )})\\frac{1-{{\\rm{sgn}}}\\,({\\delta }_{m}^{(l,\\alpha )})}{2} \\\\ \\,\t+{\\sum }_{l=c,d}{\\sum }_{m=1}^{{n}_{l}}\\,{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}\\,({v}_{m}^{l})(1-\\,{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}\\,({\\delta }_{m}^{l}))\\\\ \\,\t+{\\sum }_{\\beta=\\pm }\\beta {\\sum }_{m=1}^{{n}_{(f,\\beta )}}\\,{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}\\,({v}_{m}^{(f,\\beta )})(1-\\,{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}\\,({\\delta }_{m}^{(f,\\beta )})),$$<\/p>\n<p>\n                    (19)\n                <\/p>\n<p> where for line segment l\u00a0=\u00a0e and g, \\({v}_{m}^{(l,\\alpha )}\\) and \\({\\delta }_{m}^{(l,\\alpha )}\\,(\\alpha=1,3,5,7)\\) are defined for screw eigenvalue \\({e}^{-i(\\alpha \\pi+{k}_{z})\/4}\\); for line segment f, \\({v}_{m}^{(f,\\beta )}\\) and \\({\\delta }_{m}^{(f,\\beta )}\\,(\\beta=\\pm )\\) are defined for twofold rotation eigenvalues \u03b2i. After adding symmetry allowed perturbations to lift the accidental degeneracy in \\({\\hat{{{\\mathcal{H}}}}}_{0}\\), the energy spectrum is as shown in Fig.\u00a0<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"figure anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Fig4\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">4<\/a>. According to the sign of \u03b4k shown in Fig.\u00a0<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"figure anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Fig4\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">4<\/a>, we find \\({{{\\mathcal{X}}}}_{3}=3\\). In Methods, we show that \\({{{\\mathcal{X}}}}_{3}\\) mod 4 serves as a \\({{\\mathbb{Z}}}_{4}\\)-valued indicator of w3D.<\/p>\n<p>Fig. 4: The band structure of the model (<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"equation anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Equ17\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">17<\/a>) with symmetry-allowed perturbations in space group P41.<img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"figure-4-desc ai-alt-disclaimer-figure-4-1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/41467_2026_72811_Fig4_HTML.png\" alt=\"Fig. 4: The band structure of the model (17) with symmetry-allowed perturbations in space group P41.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"685\" height=\"390\"\/>The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.<\/p>\n<p>Solid lines (dashed lines) represent bands crossing (not crossing) the Fermi level. The arrows represent the positive direction of the line segments c,\u00a0d,\u00a0e,\u00a0f, and g. The red and blue colors mean states with screw eigenvalue \\({e}^{-i(3\\pi+{k}_{z})\/4}\\) and \\({e}^{-i(\\pi+{k}_{z})\/4}\\), respectively. The \u00a0+\u00a0and \u00a0\u2212\u00a0represent the sign of \u03b4k at the corresponding Fermi point. The parameters are set to be {t,\u00a0\u03bc}\u00a0=\u00a0{1,\u00a01.8}.<\/p>\n<p>Application to realistic materials<\/p>\n<p>We discuss CaFeAs2, whose space group is P21, to demonstrate how to apply our formula to realistic materials based on first-principles calculations.<\/p>\n<p>In Fig.\u00a0<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"figure anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Fig5\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">5<\/a>, we show the band structure and Fermi surfaces obtained by DFT calculations. From the raw data of Fig.\u00a0<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"figure anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Fig5\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">5<\/a>(a), we notice that there are eight Fermi surfaces around the \u0393 point and four Fermi surfaces around the M point. This implies that although the Fermi surfaces in Fig.\u00a0<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"figure anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Fig5\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">5<\/a>(b) and (c) seem to be degenerate, there is no Fermi surface degeneracy. This is consistent with the symmetry analysis.<\/p>\n<p>Fig. 5: First-principle calculation results for CaFeAs2.<img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"figure-5-desc ai-alt-disclaimer-figure-5-1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/41467_2026_72811_Fig5_HTML.png\" alt=\"Fig. 5: First-principle calculation results for CaFeAs2.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"685\" height=\"799\"\/>The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.<\/p>\n<p>a The band structure of CaFeAs2. The bands near the Fermi energy EF are marked in red. M, X, \u0393, Y, Z, R, A, L represent (\u03c0\/2,\u00a0\u03c0\/2,\u00a00), (\u03c0\/2,\u00a00,\u00a00), (0,\u00a00,\u00a00), (0,\u00a0\u03c0\/2,\u00a00), (0,\u00a00,\u00a0\u03c0\/2), (0,\u00a0\u03c0\/2,\u00a0\u03c0\/2), (\u03c0\/2,\u00a0\u03c0\/2,\u00a0\u03c0\/2), (\u03c0\/2,\u00a00,\u00a0\u03c0\/2) in the Brillouin zone, respectively. b, c The Fermi surface of CaFeAs2 with different viewpoints. The Fermi surfaces are visualized by XCrySDen<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-action=\"reference anchor\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-test=\"citation-ref\" aria-label=\"Reference 87\" title=\"Kokalj, A. XCrySDen&#x2014;a new program for displaying crystalline structures and electron densities. J. Mol. Graph. Model. 17, 176 (1999).\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#ref-CR87\" id=\"ref-link-section-d2916108e11568\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">87<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>One can see that the kz-dependence of Fermi surfaces is sufficiently weak, and topological properties inherit the quasi-two-dimensional nature of its electronic structure. Therefore, we focus on kz\u00a0=\u00a00 plane with the exchange of kx- and ky-axes to illustrate the workflow of our diagnostic scheme, which results in Layer group p2111 (No. 9).<\/p>\n<p>According to our Fermi surface formula, there exist a \\({\\mathbb{Z}}\\)-valued invariant for gapless points, a \\({{\\mathbb{Z}}}_{2}\\)-valued invariant, and a \\({{\\mathbb{Z}}}_{4}\\)-valued invariant, whose expressions are given by <\/p>\n<p>$${{{\\mathcal{W}}}}_{1}^{\\rm gapless}=\t{\\sum }_{m=1}^{{n}_{{a}_{1}}}\\,{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}({v}_{m}^{{a}_{1}})\\frac{1-{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}({\\delta }_{m}^{{a}_{1}})}{2}+{\\sum }_{m=1}^{{n}_{{a}_{2}}}{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}({v}_{m}^{{a}_{2}})\\frac{1-{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}({\\delta }_{m}^{{a}_{2}})}{2}\\\\ \t-{\\sum }_{m=1}^{{n}_{{b}_{1}}}{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}({v}_{m}^{{b}_{1}})\\frac{1-{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}\\,({\\delta }_{m}^{{b}_{1}})}{2}+2{\\sum }_{m=1}^{{n}_{{c}_{1}}}\\,{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}({v}_{m}^{{c}_{1}})\\frac{1-{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}({\\delta }_{m}^{{c}_{1}})}{2}\\\\ \t-{\\sum }_{m=1}^{{n}_{{d}_{1}}}sgn({v}_{m}^{{d}_{1}})\\frac{1-{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}({\\delta }_{m}^{{d}_{1}})}{2}-{\\sum }_{m=1}^{{n}_{{d}_{2}}}{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}({v}_{m}^{{d}_{2}})\\frac{1-{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}\\,({\\delta }_{m}^{{d}_{2}})}{2};$$<\/p>\n<p>\n                    (20)\n                <\/p>\n<p>$${{{\\mathcal{X}}}}_{1}={\\sum }_{m=1}^{{n}_{{b}_{1}}}\\frac{1-\\,{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}({\\delta }_{m}^{{b}_{1}})}{2}+{\\sum }_{m=1}^{{n}_{{d}_{1}}}\\frac{1-{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}({\\delta }_{m}^{{d}_{1}})}{2}+{\\sum }_{m=1}^{{n}_{{d}_{2}}}\\frac{1-{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}\\,({\\delta }_{m}^{{d}_{2}})}{2}\\,\\,{{\\mathrm{mod}}}\\,\\,2;$$<\/p>\n<p>\n                    (21)\n                <\/p>\n<p>$${{{\\mathcal{X}}}}_{2}=\t2{\\sum }_{m=1}^{{n}_{{a}_{2}}}\\,{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}({v}_{m}^{{a}_{2}})\\frac{1-{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}({\\delta }_{m}^{{a}_{2}})}{2}-{\\sum }_{m=1}^{{n}_{{b}_{1}}}{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}({v}_{m}^{{b}_{1}})\\frac{1-{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}({\\delta }_{m}^{{b}_{1}})}{2}\\\\ \t-2{\\sum }_{m=1}^{{n}_{{d}_{1}}}{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}({v}_{m}^{{d}_{1}})\\frac{1-{{\\mathrm{sgn}}}\\,({\\delta }_{m}^{{d}_{1}})}{2}\\,\\,{{\\mathrm{mod}}}\\,\\,4.$$<\/p>\n<p>\n                    (22)\n                <\/p>\n<p>Here, a1 and d1 (a2 and d2) are symbols of the irreducible representations whose character of screw symmetry along x-axis is \\(-{{\\rm{i}}}{e}^{-{{\\rm{i}}}{k}_{x}\/2}\\,(+{{\\rm{i}}}{e}^{-{{\\rm{i}}}{k}_{x}\/2})\\) (see Section\u00a0<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"supplementary material anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#MOESM1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">L9<\/a> in\u00a0<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"supplementary material anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#MOESM1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Supplementary Information<\/a> for more detailed information).<\/p>\n<p>As a demonstration, here we discuss some scenarios out of all possibilities, in which sign changes happen between the Fermi surfaces near the M point while fixing the pairing signs of the Fermi surfaces near the \u0393 point to be positive. Although a global gauge transformation can give rise to the global minus sign of the superconducting order parameter, this does not affect the topology. As a result, there are six inequivalent pairing sign choices for possible fully gapped superconducting states (whose \\({{{\\mathcal{W}}}}_{1}^{\\rm {gapless}}\\) must be trivial), as shown in Fig.\u00a0<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"figure anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Fig6\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">6<\/a>(b\u2013g). According to the formulas of the invariants, we find that four of these configurations correspond to topologically nontrivial states, \\(({{{\\mathcal{W}}}}_{1}^{\\rm {gapless}},{{{\\mathcal{X}}}}_{1},{{{\\mathcal{X}}}}_{2})=(0,0,2)\\). This phase is equivalent to x-direction stacking copies of one-dimensional class DIII topological superconductors along the y-direction, as shown in Fig.\u00a0<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"figure anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Fig6\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">6<\/a>(h) (see Supplementary Note\u00a0<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"supplementary material anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#MOESM1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">3<\/a>A for more details). The model in Fig.\u00a0<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"figure anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Fig6\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">6<\/a>(h) with a small perturbation is a second-order topological superconductor with Majorana corner modes, as shown in Fig.\u00a0<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"figure anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Fig6\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">6<\/a>(i).<\/p>\n<p>Fig. 6: Demonstration of our diagnosis of topological phases based on first-principles calculation results.<img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"figure-6-desc ai-alt-disclaimer-figure-6-1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/41467_2026_72811_Fig6_HTML.png\" alt=\"Fig. 6: Demonstration of our diagnosis of topological phases based on first-principles calculation results.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"685\" height=\"273\"\/>The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.<\/p>\n<p>a Fermi surface of quasi-2D CaFeAs2 based on the DFT-calculated data. a,\u00a0b,\u00a0c,\u00a0d are the one-cell, whose directions are labeled by arrows. ci and di represent the irreducible representations on the one-cell c and d. \u0393, X, Y, M represent (0,\u00a00), (\u03c0,\u00a00), (0,\u00a0\u03c0) and (\u03c0,\u00a0\u03c0). b\u2013g The six inequivalent pairing sign configurations satisfying \\({{{\\mathcal{W}}}}_{1}^{\\rm {gapless}}=0\\). \u00a0+\u00a0and \u00a0\u2212\u00a0represent the pairing sign \\({\\delta }_{i}^{l}\\) of i-th Fermi points on the line segment l. \\({{\\mathcal{W}}}\\), \\({{{\\mathcal{X}}}}_{1}\\) and \\({{{\\mathcal{X}}}}_{2}\\) represent the value of the topological invariants defined in Eqs. (<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"equation anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Equ20\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">20<\/a>), (<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"equation anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Equ21\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">21<\/a>) and (<a data-track=\"click\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-track-action=\"equation anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-72811-z#Equ22\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">22<\/a>). h The real-space construction of the topological nontrivial state with \\(({{\\mathcal{W}}},{{{\\mathcal{X}}}}_{1},{{{\\mathcal{X}}}}_{2})=(0,0,2)\\). i The corner modes of the topological nontrivial state with \\(({{\\mathcal{W}}},{{{\\mathcal{X}}}}_{1},{{{\\mathcal{X}}}}_{2})=(0,0,2)\\).<\/p>\n<p>Finally, let us return to the discussion of the three-dimensional nature. Due to its quasi-two-dimensional electronic nature, three-dimensional topological properties can be understood by stacking the aforementioned two-dimensional topological states along the z-direction. As a result, we conclude that this three-dimensional topological phase exhibits hinge modes along the z-direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fermi surface formulas In this work, we focus on s-wave-like pairing symmetries, formally defined by the symmetry properties&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[4230,4231,2302,90,12667,12668,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-604536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-physics","tag-humanities-and-social-sciences","tag-multidisciplinary","tag-physics","tag-science","tag-superconducting-properties-and-materials","tag-topological-matter","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}