Chiral symmetry breaking and topological charge of zigzag graphene nanoribbons

Interacting quasi-one-dimensional zigzag graphene nanoribbons display gapped edge excitations. Although the self-consistent Hartree–Fock fields break chiral symmetry, our work demonstrates that zigzag graphene nanoribbons maintain their status as short-range entangled symmetry-protected topological insulators. The relevant symmetry involves combined mirror and time-reversal operations. In undoped ribbons displaying edge ferromagnetism, the band gap edge states with a topological charge form on the zigzag edges. An analysis of the anomalous continuity equation elucidates that this topological charge is induced by the gap term. In low-doped zigzag ribbons, where the ground state exhibits edge spin density waves, this topological charge appears as a nearly zero-energy edge mode. Our system is outside the conventional classification for topological insulators.