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SPRINGER BRIEFS IN MATHEMATIC AL PHYSICS 23

Emil Prodan

A Computational
Non-commutative
Geometry Program
for Disordered
Topological
Insulators
123
SpringerBriefs in Mathematical Physics

Volume 23

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Emil Prodan

A Computational
Non-commutative Geometry
Program for Disordered
Topological Insulators

123
Emil Prodan
Department of Physics, Department
of Mathematical Sciences
Yeshiva University
New York, NY
USA

ISSN 2197-1757 ISSN 2197-1765 (electronic)

SpringerBriefs in Mathematical Physics
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Preface

The non-commutative geometry program for aperiodic condensed matter systems in

the presence of magnetic fields was initiated by Jean Bellissard in the mid-1970s. Its
foundations stand on a natural generalization of the Brillouin torus in terms of a
suitable C
-algebra and a set of non-commutative rules of calculus [J. Bellissard,
K-theory of C
-algebras in solid state physics, Lecture Notes in Physics 257,
99–156, (1986)]. Together, they form a non-commutative differential manifold,
dubbed the non-commutative Brillouin torus (see Chap. 3), on which one can write
closed-form expressions for the intrinsic thermodynamic coefficients of condensed
matter systems and for their response functions to external fields. Examples are the
non-commutative formulas for the integrated density of states, linear and nonlinear
transport coefficients, polarization, and magnetization. These and other formulas will
be discussed in Sect. 3.8. Furthermore, extremely difficult issues in condensed matter
physics can be naturally formalized and attacked with mathematical rigor. One such
example is the question of existence and characterization of the thermodynamic limit
for the intensive thermodynamic variables and response functions of homogeneous
aperiodic condensed matter systems, which is discussed in Chap. 1. Another
example is understanding the quantization and stability against various perturbations
of certain response functions, such as the Hall conductance, in the regime of strong
disorder. The pairing of Bellissard’s program in condensed matter and Alain
Conne’s program in non-commutative geometry produced an extremely elegant and
natural explanation of the integer quantum Hall effect [J. Bellissard et al.,
The non-commutative geometry of the quantum Hall effect, J. Math. Phys. 35,
5373–5451 (1994)], which came in the form of an index theorem that is stable even
in conditions where the Fermi energy is located in the essential, though Anderson
localized, spectrum. This result is regarded as one of the most important applications
of non-commutative geometry in physics. Using precisely the same methods, this
index theorem has been recently generalized to higher dimensions and to condensed
matter systems with chiral symmetry. These aspects are discussed in Chap. 2. Worth
mentioning are also the magnetic derivations introduced by Bellissard and discussed
in Sect. 3.7, essential for the derivation of closed-form expressions for the magne-
toelectric transport coefficients.

v
vi Preface

Since the works of Mathew Hastings and Terry Loring around 2009, it became
gradually clear that the framework of operator algebras and non-commutative
geometry is quite natural for developing computer-assisted calculations for aperi-
odic solids. Our first calculation of this type was reported around the same time and
contained the first numerical evaluation of the non-commutative formula for the
Hall conductance. An extended discussion of these and other calculations, together
with the empirical principles behind them, can be found in the review article
Disordered topological insulators: A non-commutative geometry perspective,
J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 44, 113001 (2011). Somewhat ironically, the non-
commutative Brillouin torus is defined in the strict thermodynamic limit and there is
no exact analog of it at finite volumes. For this reason, the non-commutative
formulas become ill-defined at finite volumes. However, in a 2013 study, we
realized that the non-commutative Brillouin torus accepts a canonical finite-volume
approximation [E. Prodan, Quantum transport in disordered systems under mag-
netic fields: A study based on operator algebras, Appl. Math. Res. Express 2013,
176–255 (2013)]. This observation enabled us not only to better understand our
previous calculations (see Chap. 5) but also to improve on them to a point where
the quantization of various topological invariants was reproduced with machine
precision, in the regime of strong disorder where the random fluctuations
in Hamiltonian coefficients far exceed their average (see Table 9.1). Furthermore,
it was found that the setting of C
-algebras, which is at the core of the
non-commutative torus, provides just the right framework for the analysis of the
numerical errors. These aspects will be revisited in Chaps. 6 and 8. The resulting
numerical algorithms have been applied to a whole range of problems, spanning
from the critical behavior of the transport coefficients at the plateau–insulator
transition of the integer quantum Hall effect to computations of phase diagrams for
various disordered models of topological insulators. These applications will be
revisited in Chaps. 7 and 9.
The present notes build on almost a decade of practice in the field of disordered
topological insulators. At this point, we are definitely at a crossroad, trying to look
beyond the class of disordered crystals. In many respects, the disordered crystals are
the simplest and best understood among the homogeneous condensed matter sys-
tems and we are quite eager to see whether the amorphous, quasicrystalline, fractal
and network-like condensed matter systems can be analyzed by similar techniques.
We felt, however, that, in order to move forward, we need to understand the
fundamental principles that make the current algorithms work so well. This is
precisely the main scope of the present notes, which are intended to serve the
following purposes:
1. We tried to fit the finite-volume approximations in a more general context,
which should be quite familiar to the practitioners of operator algebras. For
example, we show that the process of taking the thermodynamic limit of these
approximations fits into a projective tower of algebras (see Chap. 5). It is our
hope that this observation can serve as a guiding principle for a generic com-
putational non-commutative program with a much broader range of
Preface vii

applicability. Some of the algebras which we think can be managed this way are
listed at the beginning of Sect. 3.4.
2. The analysis of the numerical errors is greatly improved compared to our 2013
study (see Chap. 6). This enabled us to treat arbitrary Hamiltonians with rapidly
decaying coefficients while keeping the complexity of the calculations within
quite reasonable bounds. The improvements stem from a major shift toward
purely algebraic arguments, notably, the use of the smooth algebra introduced in
Sect. 3.5 and the exploitation of its invariance w.r.t. the smooth functional
calculus. We have also corrected (see Sect. 4.4) a shortcoming of the 2013
study, where the link between the algebra of physical observables and its
finite-volume approximations was given by an approximate homomorphism.
3. The present analysis covers an important aspect that was entirely omitted in the
2013 study, namely, the error estimates for correlations involving functional
calculus with piecewise smooth function (see Chap. 8). Here, we make use
of the Sobolev spaces and their associated Frechét algebra introduced in
Sect. 3.6. The latter is shown to be invariant against the functional calculus with
piecewise smooth functions, as long as the singularities occur in the Anderson
localized spectrum. This together with the Aizenman-Molchanov bound enabled
us to confirm that the canonical finite-volume algorithms continue to display the
same rapid convergence to the thermodynamic limit.
4. As we already mentioned, the notes also showcase several numerical applica-
tions and numerical tests of the algorithms, which are mostly reproduced from
the published literature. They are still unique in many respects. For example, the
critical regime at the plateau–insulator transition in the integer quantum Hall
effect and Chern insulators was resolved computationally for the first time using
these algorithms (see Chap. 7). Also, to our knowledge, these algorithms are still
the only existing ones that can reproduce the quantization of the topological
invariants with machine precision in the regime of strong disorder (see Chap. 9).
Last but not least, I would like to acknowledge several people and the financial
support for this research. First, I am grateful to my direct collaborators Bryan
Leung, Yu Xue, and Juntao Song who perfected the algorithms and helped me
implement them on computers. They were also the drivers of most of the numerical
applications, including the data analysis. I am also grateful to Jean Bellissard for his
constant encouragement and support. His guidance helped me navigate through the
intimidating field of non-commutative geometry. Furthermore, like many con-
densed matter physicists, I have been trapped by the idealistic periodic crystalline
order, but that has changed once I discovered Jean’s works on homogeneous
aperiodic order. Jean helped me navigate this difficult field too. I am also grateful to
my collaborator Hermann Schulz-Baldes from whom I learned so much. Finally,
I was extremely fortunate to receive financial support from the US National Science
Foundation through the grants DMS-1066045 and DMR-1056168, as well as from
the Keck Foundation.

New York, NY, USA Emil Prodan

Contents

1 Disordered Topological Insulators: A Brief Introduction . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1 Homogeneous Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Homogeneous Disordered Crystals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3 Classification of Homogenous Disordered Crystals . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2 Electron Dynamics: Concrete Physical Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1 Notations and Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2 Physical Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.3 Disorder Regimes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.4 Topological Invariants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3 Non-commutative Brillouin Torus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.1 Disorder Configurations and Associated Dynamical Systems . . . . . 25
3.2 Algebra of Covariant Physical Observables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.3 Fourier Calculus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.4 Differential Calculus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.5 Smooth Sub-algebra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.6 Sobolev Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.7 Magnetic Derivations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.8 Physics Formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4 Auxiliary C*-Algebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.1 Periodic Disorder Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.2 Periodic Approximating Algebra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.3 Finite-Volume Disorder Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
4.4 Finite-Volume Approximating Algebra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
4.5 Approximate Differential Calculus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

ix
x Contents

4.6 Bloch Algebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
5 Canonical Finite-Volume Algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.1 General Picture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.2 Explicit Computer Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
6 Error Bounds for Smooth Correlations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
6.1 Assumptions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
6.2 First Round of Approximations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
6.3 Second Round of Approximations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
6.4 Overall Error Bounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
7 Applications: Transport Coefficients at Finite Temperature . . . . . . . 79
7.1 The Non-commutative Kubo Formula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
7.2 The Integer Quantum Hall Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
7.3 Chern Insulators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
8 Error Bounds for Non-smooth Correlations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
8.1 The Aizenman–Molchanov Bound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
8.2 Assumptions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
8.3 Derivation of Error Bounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
9 Applications II: Topological Invariants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
9.1 Class AIII in d ¼ 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
9.2 Class A in d ¼ 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
9.3 Class AIII in d ¼ 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Chapter 1
Disordered Topological Insulators:
A Brief Introduction

Abstract Our main goal for this Chapter is to introduce the periodic table of
topological insulators and superconductors (see Table 1.1). Since the physical prin-
ciples behind this table involve the robustness of certain physical properties against
disorder, we will take a short detour and introduce first the class of homogeneous
materials and then the sub-class of homogeneous disordered crystals. Our brief expo-
sition introduces the main physical characteristics of these materials and puts forward
a possible physical definition of the class of homogeneous materials. In parallel,
it introduces general concepts from the mathematical program pioneered by Jean
Bellissard and his collaborators (Bellissard, Lect. Notes Phys. 257, 99–156, 1986,
[4], Bellissard, Geometric and Topological Methods for Quantum Field Theory, 2003,
[7], Bellissard et al., Directions in Mathematical Quasicrystals, 2000, [5]), which will
become central to our exposition.

1.1 Homogeneous Materials

Suppose one is given a stack of mesoscopic samples, all cut out from one big piece of a
“homogeneous” solid material prepared, for example, in a big furnace at an industrial
facility. If the samples were to be examined under a powerful microscope, one will
discover microscopic defects in the atomic configurations, which are unavoidable
regardless of how careful the fabrication process was. The inescapable conclusion
is that the samples are not exactly identical and one fundamental question can be
immediately raised: Is it possible to characterize the homogeneous material produced
in the furnace in any meaningful way, at the macroscopic level? In other words, does
it make sense to place in a table the values of, let’s say, the experimentally mea-
sured transport coefficients? Do these values have a meaning or do they differ from
sample to sample? This is not just an academic question but a real practical issue
because the factory has no way to measure and characterize the entire batch of solid
material. Let us also recall that this type of questions represented a real issue when
the quasi-crystals were first characterized by transport measurements. Now, if our
character proceeds with the experiments anyway, he/she will witness the remarkable
fact that all the samples return the same macroscopic physical parameters no matter
© The Author(s) 2017 1
E. Prodan, A Computational Non-commutative Geometry Program
for Disordered Topological Insulators, SpringerBriefs in Mathematical Physics,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-55023-7_1
2 1 Disordered Topological Insulators: A Brief Introduction

how accurate the experiments, provided the size of the samples is large enough
(typically a few microns or more). We can then put forward the following physi-
cal definition of a homogenous materials: A material can be called homogeneous if
the macroscopic physical parameters, such as transport coefficients, susceptibilities,
dielectric constant, refractive index and so on, do not depend on the microscopic
details of the macroscopic samples used for the measurements. The class of homo-
geneous materials includes the perfectly periodic crystals but there are many other
distinct sub-classes such as the disordered crystals, quasi-crystals, amorphous solids,
liquids and gases.
The physical properties mentioned above can involve the electronic as well as
the atomic degrees of freedom. In these notes, we focus entirely on those physical
properties which involve only the electronic degrees of freedom, such as the linear
dc-transport coefficients of a solid. Very often in the physics community, the defining
property of the homogeneous solids is referred to as the self-averaging property of the
intensive thermodynamic coefficients. The shear generality of the concept suggests
that this can be framed in a simple and universal mathematics, which applies equally
to all (quite distinct) sub-classes of homogeneous materials mentioned above. This
has been recognized as early as 1980s by Jean Bellissard [4] and the whole issue has
indeed a simple and elegant resolution. Suppose we are given a sample, which is so
large that can be treated in the thermodynamic limit. Assume that the dynamics of the
electrons is determined by the Hamiltonian H , assumed for simplicity to be a bounded
operator. Physical translations of the sample, relative to the measuring devices, will
modify the generator of the dynamics into Ta H Ta∗ , where Ta are the unitary operators
implementing the translations on the Hilbert space H of the electrons. Let B(H) be
the algebra of bounded linear operators over H and consider the subset defined by
all the translates of H , namely:
 
Ω = Ta H Ta∗ ∈ B(H) | Ta = translation ⊂ B(H) . (1.1)

Then [4] put forward the following mathematical definition:

Definition 1.1 The condensed matter system described by H is homogeneous if Ω

defined above has a compact closure in the strong topology of B(H).

Remark 1.2 A similar definition was given in [4] for quasi-periodic systems, where
the strong topology is replaced by the norm topology. For disordered crystals, how-
ever, the latter topology is not appropriate. 

Remark 1.3 The formalism can be developed for discrete as well as continuous
translations. Since we will be dealing exclusively with the discrete case, we will
assume that a ∈ Zd from now on, where d is the dimension of the physical space. 

The closure of (1.1), denoted by the same Ω in the following, is called the hull
of H . It follows from above that, for a homogeneous condensed matter system, Ω is
a compact set and, since it is a norm-bounded subset of B(H), Ω is also metrizable.
Furthermore, there is a natural continuous action of the space translations on Ω,
1.1 Homogeneous Materials 3

denoted by τ in the following and actually throughout. This action is topologically

transitive because the orbit of H is dense in Ω, by definition.

Remark 1.4 Kellendonk in [21] calls a system homogeneous if the hull of H and
the hull of H  coincide for any H  from the hull of H , without the compactness
assumption on the hulls. These two definitions are not necessarily the same, tough
they do overlap for many cases of interest. Note that always Ω H  ⊂ Ω H if H  ∈ Ω H ,
which is a consequence of completness of Ω H . 

Things can be turned around and a homogeneous system can be equivalently

defined by a family {Hω }ω∈Ω ⊂ B(H) indexed by Ω and possessing the following
covariant property:

Ta Hω Ta∗ = Hτa ω , ∀ a ∈ Zd , ω ∈ Ω . (1.2)

While this move may seem innocent at first sight, it actually has far reaching conse-
quences:

(i) It shows that at the core of a homogeneous material, figuratively speaking, stands
a topological dynamical system (Ω, τ, Zd ). This dynamical system is related
to the underlying potential experienced by the electrons, which ultimately is set
by the atomic configurations [7]. Then (1.1) tells us that, in principle, we can
“read” the space of atomic configurations from experiments involving only the
electronic degrees of freedom. This can be viewed as an inverse problem. In
fact, it defines one of the fundamental directions in materials science.
(ii) Any such topological dynamical system accepts at least one invariant Baire
measure. We recall that Ω is actually metrizable, which has the important con-
sequence that the Baire and Borel σ -algebras coincide. The latter is preferred
in functional analysis but the former one is the natural one to use when dealing
with topological dynamical systems, as nicely explained in [17]. The invari-
ant measures form a linear space, which coincides with the convex hull of its
extreme points. The measures corresponding to these extreme points are ergodic
w.r.t. the space translations (see [15, p. 224] or [17, Chaps. 5–6]). As such, the
topological dynamical system can be always promoted to an ergodic dynamical
system, to be denoted as (Ω, τ, Zd , dP) in the following.
(iii) As long as the homogeneous phase is thermodynamically stable, the Gibbs
measure describing the classical motion of the atoms must be translationally
invariant, hence it belongs to the convex hull mentioned above. Based on physi-
cal grounds [7], the Gibbs measure for the atomic degrees of freedom is expected
to be an extreme point of the state space, in which case the natural choice of dP
is precisely the physical Gibbs measure. This in fact has been conjectured by
Ruelle [36, Chap. 6] as early as 1969, and the progress on it is discussed in [16].
This brings us to another fundamental direction in materials science, namely,
determining dP either from experiment or first-principles predictive methods
such as Quantum Molecular Dynamics.
4 1 Disordered Topological Insulators: A Brief Introduction

Bellissard’s program goes a whole lot further. Indeed, one is naturally lead to
consider the algebra generated by all the translates of the Hamiltonian. At a first
stage, one will like to close this algebra to the enveloping (separable) C ∗ -algebra,
since the latter comes with a set of fantastic tools provided by its K -theory [4].
The latter, for example, became one of the essential tools in the classification of
topological insulators [9, 11, 22, 26, 27, 39, 40], for the associated bulk-boundary
correspondence program [10, 12, 25, 30, 34] and for defining non-trivial topological
invariants [1, 13, 14, 23, 28, 29, 35]. In the bounded discrete case, this algebra
coincides with the algebra of covariant physical observables (w.r.t. the underlining
dynamical system):

A = {Aω }ω∈Ω ⊂ B(H) , Ta Aω Ta∗ = Aτa ω ∀a ∈ Zd , (1.3)

equipped with the C ∗ -norm:

A = sup Aω B(H) . (1.4)

ω∈Ω

It contains all the physical observables that lead to intensive thermodynamic variables
that are independent of the atomic configuration ω. This is a direct consequence
of Birkhoff’s ergodic theorem [8] (see Proposition 2.5). For example, the current
operator:
Jω = i[Hω , X] , X = position operator , (1.5)

belongs to this algebra.

An important question is how to characterize the algebra of the covariant physical
observables? Given the extremely generic scenario at the start of our discussion, the
answer is astonishing since it provides a connection with one of the most studied
algebras in the field of operator algebras, namely, the crossed product algebras [41].
Indeed, the topological dynamical system (Ω, τ, Zd ) has a canonically associated
dual C ∗ -dynamical system (C(Ω), τ, Zd ) (C(Ω) = algebra of complex valued
continuous function over Ω). One then realizes that (1.2) implements a covariant
representation of this dynamical system in B(H), and these covariant representations
coincide with the representations of the crossed product algebra C(Ω)  Zd (to be
introduced in Sect. 3.1). The gain here is that, not only these algebras accept a Fourier
and a differential calculus, but in many cases their K -theories can be solved explicitly.
For the case when Ω is contractible, which is relevant for the disordered crystals
introduced next, the reader can find in [34] a computation of the K -groups together
with an explicit characterization of their generators. Calculations of the K -groups
for quasi-crystals can be found in e.g. [21].
1.2 Homogeneous Disordered Crystals 5

1.2 Homogeneous Disordered Crystals

The picture of a crystalline material that most of us have in mind is that of a strictly
periodic array of atoms. As such, it may appear at first sight that the two words in the
title, disorder and crystals, make very little sense when used together like that. But is
that true? After all, upon heating, a crystal remains a crystal until the melting occurs,
i.e. it displays a sharp X-ray diffraction pattern (XRDP) [18]. Even for a chemically
pure crystal, near the melting line, the atoms are, at any moment, quite far from
the idealized periodic positions and they will appear disordered in an instantaneous
snapshot. One can then put forward the physical definition of a disordered crystal
as being a homogeneous material which returns sharp XRDPs consistent with the
known crystal space groups (hence excluding the quasi-crystals).
One could object to the above definition by arguing that the sharp XRDPs seen
experimentally all the way to the melting [18] capture only the time-average of the
atomic configuration. In other words, the sharp XRDPs have little to do with the
instantaneous disordered configurations and instead the diffraction patterns origi-
nate from the time-averaged atomic configuration, which presumably is periodic.
One should recall, though, the fundamental principle of statistical mechanics, which
asserts that, at thermodynamic equilibrium, the time averages and ensembles aver-
ages coincide. Due to the self-averaging feature of the homogeneous materials, it
follows that the XRDPs coming from one single representative atomic configura-
tion coincides with the average over the atomic configurations [7, Theorem 1.12].
The striking conclusion is that, even if the XRDP were recorded instantaneously,
something that might be possible in the near future, they will be identical with the
time-averaged ones, hence sharp.

Remark 1.5 We brought up the subject of X-ray diffraction only to introduce the
concept of disordered crystal and we warn the reader that XRDPs are not at all the
focus of the present work. Let us point out that the mathematics of diffraction on
aperiodic systems is quite well developed and the reader can read more about it in the
monograph [3]. An insightful account of XPRDs in periodic vs disordered structures
is given in [2]. Another useful source of information is the collection of works in
[24], which touch on various modern aspects of the aperiodic order. 

Remark 1.6 The disorder may have various sources besides the thermal fluctuations,
such as substitutions with impurity atoms or microscopic lattice defects. All such
defects can be treated by the same formalism. 

Mathematically, a disordered crystal can be characterized by a transitive topo-

logical dynamical system (Ω, τ, Zd ), as introduced in the previous section. What
really makes the system into a disordered crystal, from the mathematical point of
view, is the discrete action of the Zd group, together with the fact that Ω is compact,
metrizable and contractible. The last condition is new, compared with e.g. [4], but
we feel it is necessary because otherwise the K -groups of the disordered crystal may
differ from that of the perfect crystal. But this can not happen if the periodic and
6 1 Disordered Topological Insulators: A Brief Introduction

disordered crystals belong to the same thermodynamic macroscopic phase. In a more

direct way, this condition will automatically exclude the quasi-crystals for which Ω
is a totally disconnected space [21].

Remark 1.7 A possible refinement of the above characterization of disordered

crystals is to consider a transitive dynamical system under the full action of the
crystallographic space group. 

1.3 Classification of Homogenous Disordered Crystals

Table 1.1 represents the broadly accepted classification table of topological insula-
tors and of the fermionic excitations in superconductors [27, 37, 38]. We assume
familiarity of the reader with this table, whose explanation will be kept to minimum.
The purpose of this section is rather to highlight the aspects related to disorder.
Let us start with the statement that, quite often, it is mistakenly assumed that
Table 1.1 was generated based on a mathematical classification criterium. This cannot
be further from the reality. The value of this table is in that it singles out phases of
condensed matter with extremely robust transport properties. Put it differently, the
table is about unique materials and devices and not about an abstract mathematical
classification problem. Specifically, the table states that the solid state phases listed
there:

Table 1.1 Classification table of strong topological insulator and superconductors [27, 37, 38].
Each row represents a universal symmetry class, defined by the presence (1 or ±1) or absence
(0) of the three symmetries: time-reversal (TRS), particle-hole (PHS) and chiral (CHS), and by
how TRS and PHS transformations square to either +I or −I . Each universality class is identified
by a Cartan–Altland–Zirnbauer (CAZ) label. The strong topological phases are organized by their
corresponding symmetry class and space dimension d = 0, . . . , 8. These phases are in one-to-one
relation with the elements of the trivial, Z2 , Z or 2 Z groups. The table is further divided into the
complex classes A and AIII (top two rows), which are the object of the present study, and the real
classes AI, . . . , CI (the remaining 8 rows). The phases highlighted in red are covered by the present
work
j TRS PHS CHS CAZ 0, 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
0 0 0 0 A Z Z Z Z
1 0 0 1 AIII Z Z Z Z
0 +1 0 0 AI Z 2Z Z2 Z2
1 +1 +1 1 BDI Z2 Z 2Z Z2
2 0 +1 0 D Z2 Z 2 Z 2Z
3 −1 +1 1 DIII Z 2 Z2 Z 2Z
4 −1 0 0 AII 2 Z Z2 Z 2 Z
5 −1 −1 1 CII 2Z Z2 Z2 Z
6 0 −1 0 C 2Z Z2 Z2 Z
7 +1 −1 1 CI 2Z Z2 Z2 Z
1.3 Classification of Homogenous Disordered Crystals 7

1. Are distinct macroscopic phases of matter in the true sense of the words. That
is, the phases are separated from one another by a phase transition, the Anderson
localization-delocalization transition characterized by the divergence of Ander-
son’s localization length. Its experimental signature will be discussed in great
detail in Sects. 7.2 and 7.3.
2. Can be labeled uniquely by the values of a strong bulk invariant. The bulk invari-
ants are specific to each class but in general they have physical interpretations as
linear and non-linear transport coefficient, or as linear and non-linear magneto-
electric response functions.
3. Conduct electricity even in the presence of relatively large disorder once a surface
is cut into the crystals and the phase is topologically non-trivial.

Remark 1.8 We should point out that the K -theories of the physical algebras cannot
reproduce Table 1.1, as the classifications based on such methods return also the so
called weak topological phases. The conjecture put forward by Table 1.1 is that, in the
normal laboratory conditions where disorder is inevitable, these weak phases can be
connected with the trivial phases without crossing a phase transition. Only the strong
topological phases listed in Table 1.1 remain distinct in the presence of disorder. For
the phases classified by Z or 2Z in Table 1.1, a proof of the characteristics 1–3 can
be found in the monograph [34]. 

As one can see, disorder is an integral component of the field. In fact, it is at the
very heart of it since the classification table will look very different if the disorder is
taken out of the picture. It was precisely this important aspect that has led us to the
development of the numerical program reviewed within these pages. The examples
and the explicit computations presented in this work are all for the topological phases
classified by Z or 2Z in Table 1.1. The simple reason is that, despite concentrated
efforts [9, 11, 12, 19, 20], the Z2 bulk and boundary invariants are still lacking
expressions which can be evaluated on a computer in the presence of strong disorder.
An important development in this direction are the index pairings of [19] which are
indeed stable in the regime of strong disorder but, unfortunately, local formulas for the
proposed Z2 topological indices are missing. This is a critical issue because Fredholm
operators are difficult to represent with the finite algebras handled by a computer.
In contradistinction, a local index formula can be efficiently approximated using
finite algebras, as we shall see later. This is why the existing local index formulas
[6, 13, 31–34] for the Z topological indices are essential for our computational
non-commutative program.

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logical insulators (2016). arXiv:1604.02337
13. Bourne, C., Rennie, A.: Chern numbers, localisation and the bulk-edge correspondence for
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Chapter 2
Electron Dynamics: Concrete Physical
Models

Abstract This Chapter introduces and characterizes the so called lattice models,
which integrate naturally in the general framework for homogeneous materials intro-
duced in Chap. 1. It also fixes the notations and the conventions used throughout. A
model of disorder is introduced and the various regimes of disorder are discussed.
The Chapter concludes with the introduction and characterization of the topological
invariants corresponding to the phases classified by Z and 2Z in Table 1.1.

2.1 Notations and Conventions

From now on, our exposition deals exclusively with discrete lattice models. These
models give accurate representations of the low-energy excitations which are respon-
sible for the physics observed in the typical experiments performed on solid state
phases, such as the transport measurements. Given a concrete material, accurate lat-
tice models can be generated from first principles [17, 20, 28, 29]. One such technique
is based on projecting the continuum models on a discrete, periodic and localized
partial basis set which accurately represents the spectral subspace in a finite energy
window around the Fermi level. Benchmarks of this method can be found in [18].
The models can be also generated empirically by fitting the available experimental
data. One relevant example of this type is the lattice model of the HgTe quantum
wells [9, 15], the prototypical topological insulator from class AII in dimension two.
The Hilbert spaces of the lattice models take the generic form H = C N ⊗ 2 (Zd ),
where d is the dimension of the physical space and C N is often referred to as the
fiber. As before, the algebra of bounded linear operator over H will be denoted by
B(H). Let us specify from the beginning that Zd does not represent the position
of the atoms but it rather labels the primitive cells. The dimension d needs to be
understood accordingly, e.g. d = 1 for a molecular chain, d = 2 for graphene and
d = 3 for an ordinary crystal. This dimension can be higher than three, since one can
add virtual dimensions by varying the parameters of the models [23]. The primitive
cells of topological insulators contain many atoms, in many cases 10 or even more,
hence they are quite complex. The dimension N of the fiber represents the number
of molecular orbitals per primitive cell included in the model. The larger this number
© The Author(s) 2017 11
E. Prodan, A Computational Non-commutative Geometry Program
for Disordered Topological Insulators, SpringerBriefs in Mathematical Physics,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-55023-7_2
12 2 Electron Dynamics: Concrete Physical Models

the more precise the model is. Due to the complex primitive cell of the topological
materials, this number can be quite large in the first principle calculations (within
the hundreds!). This is to be contrasted with the simple analytic models used by
theoretical physicists, which quite often assume N = 2.
Throughout, we denote the space of N × N matrices with complex entries by
M N (C). Also, tr will denote the normalized trace of matrices, such as those from
M N (C), or more general the standard normalized traces over finite dimensional
Hilbert spaces. The semi-finite traces over infinite Hilbert spaces, such as 2 (Zd ) or
C N ⊗ 2 (Zd ), will be denoted as usual by Tr. We will adopt the Dirac notation |α, x
for the standard basis of C N ⊗ 2 (Zd ) and, throughout, X will denote the position
operator on 2 (Zd ), X |x = x|x. For an operator T on C N ⊗ 2 (Zd ), the notation
x|T |y stands for the N × N matrix with entries α, x|T |β, y, α, β = 1, . . . , N .
Another set of useful operators on 2 (Zd ) are the shift operators S j |x = |x + e j ,
where e j , j = 1, . . . , d, are the generators of Zd . The following notation:
y y
S y = S1 1 . . . , Sd d , S y |x = |x + y , y ∈ Zd , (2.1)

will be adopted throughout. Lastly, if V is a finite subset of Zd , then we can consider

the associated finite-dimensional Hilbert space C N ⊗ 2 (V ) and we denote the cor-
responding normalized traceby tr V , and the partial isometry from C N ⊗ 2 (Zd ) to
C N ⊗ 2 (V ) by ΠV = 1 ⊗ x∈V |xx|.
Another convention we adopt throughout concerns the notation for the norms.
While, the norms on different algebras will be defined explicitly, to simplify the
notation, we will use most of the time the same symbol   for all of them. There
should be no confusion in the calculations, because in all such instances the algebras
can be easily identified. For example, the norm appearing in x|T |y is the one on
M N (C).

2.2 Physical Models

In the periodic or translational invariant case, the most general Hamiltonian that can
be defined on a lattice takes the form:

H : C N ⊗ 2 (Zd ) → C N ⊗ 2 (Zd ) , H = w y ⊗ Sy , (2.2)
y∈Zd

where the hopping matrices w y ∈ M N (C) satisfy the basic constraint w∗y = w−y
ensuring that H is self-adjoint. When symmetries are present, the hopping matrices
acquire additional structure. In particular, when the chiral symmetry is present and
the dimension of the fiber is even, the hopping matrices have the structure:
 
0 gy
wy = , (2.3)
g ∗y 0
2.2 Physical Models 13

which manifests in the chiral symmetry of the Hamiltonian [27]:

 
∗ IN 0
S H S = −H , S = . (2.4)
0 −I N

By examining the classification Table 1.1, we can see that the chiral symmetry is
present for all phases classified by Z or 2Z in odd dimensions.
As it is well known, the energy spectrum of the translational invariant Hamilto-
nians is continuous and, since we want to deal only with insulators, the only way to
accommodate that is to assume a gap in the energy spectrum and that the Fermi level
ε F is somehow pinned inside this spectral gap. In the independent electron approxi-
mation, assumed throughout, the ground state of the Hamiltonian is encoded in the
Fermi projection, that is, the spectral projection onto the energy spectrum below the
Fermi level ε F :
PF = χ (H ≤ ε F ) ∈ B(H) , (2.5)

where χ stands for the indicator function. For all topological phases in even dimen-
sions that are classified by Z or 2Z in Table 1.1, the topology is encoded in PF . When
the chiral symmetry is present, the Fermi projection has a particular structure:
 
1 −U F∗
PF = 1
, U F∗ U F = U F U F∗ = I , (2.6)
2 −U F 1

and the topology is encoded in the unitary operator U F rather than PF itself. We refer
to U F as the unitary Fermi operator. The strong topological invariants for the phases
classified by Z or 2Z in Table 1.1 are given by the top even Chern number applied to
PF , for even space dimensions, and by the top odd Chern number applied to U F , for
odd dimensions [27]. They will be further elaborated in Sect. 2.4 and, for now, let us
present two examples of topological models, which can be solved explicitly in the
bulk as well as with a boundary. The explicit calculations can be found in [26].

Example 2.1 (A topological insulator from class A) Assume the space dimension
even and let {γ j } j=1,d be the irreducible representation of the even complex Clifford
d
algebra Cl d on C2 2 and γ0 be its standard inner grading. Consider the following
d
Hamiltonian on the Hilbert space C2 2 ⊗ 2 (Zd ):
⎛ ⎞

d 
d
H = 1
2i
γ j ⊗ (S j − S ∗j ) + γ0 ⊗ ⎝m + 21 (S j + S j )⎠ ,
∗
(2.7)
j=1 j=1

with Fermi level fixed at the origin. Then H has a spectral gap at the Fermi level,
except when m ∈ {−d, −d + 2, . . . , d − 2, d}. If m ∈ (−d + 2n, −d + 2n + 2),
with n = 0, . . . , d−2
2
, the model is in a topological insulating phase labeled by its
top even Chern number which takes the value (−1)n d−1 n
.
14 2 Electron Dynamics: Concrete Physical Models

Remark 2.2 If d = 4, the above model is in fact time-reversal symmetric, hence it

can be as well considered from the class AII.

Example 2.3 (A topological insulator from class AIII) Assume the space dimension
odd and let {γ j } j=1,d+1 be the irreducible representation of the even complex Clifford
d+1
algebra Cl d+1 on C2 2
. Consider the following Hamiltonian on the Hilbert space
d+1
C2 2
⊗  (Z ):
2 d

⎛ ⎞

d 
d
H = 1
2i
γ j ⊗ (S j − S ∗j ) + γd+1 ⊗ ⎝m + 1
2
(S j + S ∗j )⎠ , (2.8)
j=1 j=1

with Fermi level fixed at the origin. Then H has the chiral symmetry γ0 H γ0∗ = −H
and the model displays a spectral gap at the Fermi level, except when m ∈ {−d, −d +
2, . . . , d − 2, d}. If m ∈ (−d + 2n, −d + 2n + 2), with n = 0, . . . , d−1
2
, the model
is in a topological phase labeled by its top odd Chern number which takes the value
(−1)n d−1 n
.

The presence of a uniform magnetic field is incorporated in the lattice models

by using the Peierls substitution [21], which amounts to replacing the ordinary shift
operators with the dual magnetic translations:

S y → U y = ei y∧X S y = S y ei y∧X . (2.9)

Throughout:

d
x∧x = 1
2
φi j xi x j , ∀ x, x ∈ Rd , (2.10)
i, j=1

where φ is a real anti-symmetric d × d matrix with entries from [0, 2π ), encoding

the magnetic fluxes through the facets of the primitive cell, in units of flux quantum
φ0 = h/e. When the dependence on the magnetic flux needs to be emphasized we
will use ∧φ . With this substitution, the lattice Hamiltonians become:
 
H = wy ⊗ Uy = ei y∧x w y ⊗ |xx − y| . (2.11)
y∈Zd x,y∈Zd

They are no longer invariant w.r.t. the ordinary shifts but they are invariant w.r.t. the
magnetic translations:

Vy HV∗y = H , Vy = e−i y∧X S y = S y e−i y∧X . (2.12)

It is important to note that the unitary classes of topological insulators, namely the
classes A and AIII, can incorporate magnetic fields because time-reversal symmetry
is not required.
2.2 Physical Models 15

The next step incorporates the disorder. As we have seen in the previous chapter,
a homogeneous disorder is described by a measure-preserving ergodic dynamical
system (Ω, τ, Zd , dP). Below is an important example.

Example 2.4 (Disorder induced by thermal fluctuations) Assume we are dealing

with a chemically pure crystal with the atoms arranged in a perfectly periodic lattice
at zero temperature. At finite temperature, though, the atoms wander around the
equilibrium positions and the crystal is in a disordered state. If Rxα is the displacement
from equilibrium position of atom α in the primitive cell x at an instantaneous time,
then the disorder configuration at that time is encoded in ω = {Rxα }α=1,N
x∈Zd
a
, where Na is
the number of atoms in the repeating cell. One assumption is that each atom wanders
only in a finite neighborhood Ωxα of its equilibrium position. Then homogeneity
requires that Ωxα = Ω0α , and the space of disorder configurations and the Zd -action
are given by:

Na
Ω= Ω0α = Ω0 , τ y ω = τ y {Rxα } = {Rx−y
α
}. (2.13)
x∈Zd α=1 x∈Zd

Note that Ω is a Tychononov space, hence compact and metrizable, and that τ is con-
tinuous and invertible hence (Ω, τ, Zd ) is indeed a topological classical dynamical
system. The Gibbs measure governing the classical statistical mechanics of the atoms
is defined as the thermodynamic limit of the finite volume probability measures:

Na
dPV (ω) = ZV−1 e−βVV (ω) dωxα , (2.14)
x∈V ⊂Zd α=1

where VV is a classical potential for the atomic degrees of freedom and β = kT1
,
where k is Boltzmann’s constant and T is the temperature. When the electronic
and atomic degrees of freedom decouple as in the Born-Oppenheimer regime, the
potential VV can be mapped explicitly from the ground state of the electrons.

As we have already seen, central to the theory of homogeneous aperiodic solids is

the notion of covariance of physical observables, which in the presence of a uniform
magnetic field takes the form:

Vy Fω Vy∗ = Fτ y ω . (2.15)

We will always assume that the matrix elements x|Fω |y are measurable functions
of ω, which is indeed the case for the applications considered here.

Proposition 2.5 Let Fω , Fω , . . . be covariant operators. Then P-almost surely:

lim tr V ΠV Fω Fω . . . ΠV∗ = dP(ω) tr 0|Fω Fω . . . |0 , (2.16)

|V |→∞ Ω
16 2 Electron Dynamics: Concrete Physical Models

where V is a cube from Zd and |V | is its cardinality. The functional on the righthand
side defines the trace per volume, which will be denoted by T ( ) throughout.
Proof We have:

1 
tr V ΠV (Fω Fω . . .)ΠV = tr x|Fω Fω . . . |x , (2.17)
|V | x∈V

and the last term can be written equivalently as:

1  1 
tr 0|Vx∗ (Fω Fω . . .)Vx |0 = tr 0|Fτ−x ω Fτ−x ω . . . |0 . (2.18)
|V | x∈V |V | x∈V

Then we are in the conditions of Birkhoff ergodic theorem [10] and the statement
follows. 

Remark 2.6 One important implication of the above statement is that the intensive
thermodynamic coefficients connected to the covariant physical observables do not
fluctuate from one disorder configuration to another or, in other words, it has the
self-averaging property in the thermodynamic limit.
When disorder is present, all the coefficients of the Hamiltonians develop a random
component. The most general form of a covariant Hamiltonian on a lattice takes the
form:
 
Hω = w y (τx ω) ⊗ |xx|U y = ei y∧x w y (τx ω) ⊗ |xx − y| . (2.19)
x,y∈Zd x,y∈Zd

We will assume that the hopping matrices w y are continuous functions over Ω with
values in M N (C). We will also assume a certain rapid decay of w y with y, to be
precisely quantified in Sect. 6.1. These assumptions are quite natural and fulfilled by
most model Hamiltonians.
Example 2.7 (“Linearized” disordered models) Most of the numerical simulations
found in the physics literature consider linearizations of the coefficients:

w y (ω) = w y + ω0α λαy , (2.20)
α

where w y and λαy are non-stochastic N × N matrices. Furthermore, ωxα are drawn
randomly and independently from the interval [− 21 , 21 ]. Hence, the disorder config-
uration space is just the Hilbert cube whose topology is discussed in great detail in
e.g. [14, Chap. 5]. Inserting these expressions in (2.19) leads to:
 
 
Hω = wy + ωxα λαy ⊗ |xx|U y . (2.21)
x,y∈Zd α
2.2 Physical Models 17

In the physicists’ jargon, the random fluctuations in the coefficients w y=0 are often
referred to as bond disorder, while to those in w y=0 as on-site disorder.

2.3 Disorder Regimes

Consider the following simplified Hamiltonian on the Hilbert space 2 (Zd ):


Hω = λ0 H0 + λ1 ωx |xx| , (2.22)
x∈Zd

where H0 is a non-stochastic periodic Hamiltonian and λ’s are just real numbers.
There are two extreme limits where the spectral properties of Hω can be readily
understood. One is λ1 = 0 when Bloch-Floquet theory can be applied, in which
case the spectrum is absolutely continuous and can be graphed as energy bands
versus quasi-momentum. The other extreme is λ0 = 0, when the Hamiltonian is
already diagonal and the spectrum is pure-point, with eigenvalues {λ1 ωx }x∈Zd and
corresponding eigenvectors localized on the lattice’s sites {|x}x∈Zd . Note that the set
of eigenvalues is a countable subset of the real axis, hence of zero Lebesque measure,
yet the set is P-almost sure dense in its interval. These are the trades of the Anderson
localized spectrum.

Definition 2.8 The part of the essential spectrum which is pure-point and has corre-
sponding eigenvectors that are exponentially localized in space is called the Anderson
localized spectrum. The complement part of the essential spectrum will be called the
Anderson delocalized spectrum.

In the intermediate regimes where both randomly fluctuating and non-fluctuating

components are present in a Hamiltonian, both Anderson localized and delocalized
spectra are expected to be present. If the space dimension is low, specifically for
d = 1 and 2, Anderson and collaborators [1] found that sometimes even small ran-
dom fluctuations can localize the entire energy spectrum. In fact, this was believed
to be the rule rather than the exception because, until the discovery of the topological
insulators, there were only a handful of known exceptions. The situation is somewhat
different in higher dimensions, where typically only the regions around the spectral
edges are localized while the spectral regions deep inside the bands remain delocal-
ized, though, the spectrum is expected to become entirely localized for extremely
strong disorder. Below we briefly discuss the regimes of weak and strong disorder.
For an in-depth treatment of the subject, the reader can consult the monograph [5].

Remark 2.9 Perhaps now it becomes more clear how extraordinary are the claims
contained in the classification table. If the topology is nontrivial, then, even in lower
dimensions, regions of extended spectrum can exist in the presence of large random
fluctuations and the entire boundary spectrum can avoid the Anderson localization
phenomenon.
18 2 Electron Dynamics: Concrete Physical Models

Let us now assume that, in the absence of disorder, we are dealing with an insulator,
hence the Hamiltonian has a spectral gap in its spectrum and the Fermi level is pinned
in the middle of this gap. Note that the spectrum of covariant Hamiltonians is non-
random and, quite generally, the edges of the energy spectrum depend continuously
on the amplitudes of the random fluctuations. Hence, if the random fluctuations are
small, such as when λ1  λ0 in the example (2.22), the spectral gap persists and
the Fermi level continues to be located in a region free of spectrum. One refers
to this regime as the regime of weak disorder. In this regime, the matrix elements
x|PF (ω)|y of the Fermi projection are rapidly decaying with the separation |x − y|,
uniformly in ω. If the Hamiltonian is of finite-range, i.e. w y = 0 outside a finite
neighborhood of the origin, or if w y decays with y exponentially fast, then:
 
sup x|PF (ω)|y ≤ Ae−β|x−y| , 0 < A, β < ∞ . (2.23)
ω∈Ω

The inequality can be established by a straightforward application of the Combes–

Thomas technique [12]. The ordinary perturbation theory is available in this regime
and can be used to investigate the behavior of the Fermi projection under various
deformations of the models. In particular, to establish that PF (ω) varies continuously
in the topology of B(H) induced by the operator norm.
When the amplitudes of the random fluctuations become large, the spectral gap
closes but a region of Anderson localized spectrum may still survive. This region is
typically sandwitched between two regions of Anderson delocalized spectrum and
in such situations one speaks of a mobility gap. One refers to this regime as the
regime of strong disorder. Note that the Fermi level is now located in the essential
spectrum but the quantum diffusion is absent. In this regime the ordinary perturbation
theory does not apply. Also, the location of the eigenvalues in the Anderson localized
spectrum fluctuate from one disorder configuration to another, and when a model is
deformed continuously, these eigenvalues shift and inherently cross the Fermi level.
These crossings can come simultaneously from below and above, hence they cannot
be avoided, e.g. by shifting the Fermi level. As a result, the Fermi projection does
not vary continuously under the deformations of the models, in neither of the natural
topologies of B(H).

Remark 2.10 The above phenomenon happens also when one tries to compute the
bulk invariants using twisted boundary conditions [16]. As a result, the numerical
values of the invariants, as computed by such methods, fluctuate from one disorder
configuration to another and the quantization can be seen only after the disorder
average is taken. As we shall see, this is not the case for the computational methods
reviewed here, where the self-averaging property manifests explicitly.

A convenient and effective way to describe the Anderson localized spectrum is

through the Aizenman–Molchanov bound on the resolvent [4]:

 s
dP(ω) x|(ε + iδ − Hω )−1 |y ≤ As e−βs |x−y| , s ∈ (0, 1) , (2.24)
Ω
2.3 Disorder Regimes 19

assumed to hold uniformly in δ ∈ (0, ∞). Above, As and βs are strictly positive
and finite parameters. The Aizenman–Molchanov bound automatically implies all
characteristics of the Anderson localization [2, 3, 5], such as absence of diffusion,
pure-point nature of the spectrum, exponential decay of the eigenvectors at infinity
and exponential decay of the averaged matrix elements of the Fermi projection:

 
dP(ω) x|PF (ω)|y ≤ Ae−γ |x−y| , 0 < A, γ < ∞ . (2.25)
Ω

Note that without the average, the inequality (2.25) fails for ω in a set of strictly
positive measure, no matter how large we pick the constant A. The bound (2.24)
is known to hold for finite-range Hamiltonians in all situations where Anderson
localization was established with mathematical rigor [5].

2.4 Topological Invariants

The theory of the topological bulk invariants for the phases classified by Z or 2Z in
Table 1.1 was developed in [8, 24, 25] for the regime of strong disorder. The recent
work [11] by Bourne and Rennie extended these result to continuum models. Below
we briefly state the main results for the discrete case, which are covered extensively
in [26]. A brisk review of the methods involved by these works can be found in [22].
For periodic models, the Bloch-Floquet transformation F over the d-dimensional
Brillouin torus Td gives:
⊕ ⊕
F HF∗ = dk Hk , F PF F ∗ = dk PF (k) . (2.26)
Td Td

The analysis is then reduced to that of smooth families of N × N matrices:


Hk : C N → C N , Hk = ei y·k w y , PF (k) = χ (Hk ≤ ε F ) .
y∈Z

Throughout, x · x will denote the Euclidean scalar product. In this simplified setting,
the top even Chern number takes the familiar form [6] (d = even):
⎛ ⎞
d  dk
d
∂ P (k)
(2πi) 2
(−1)ρ tr ⎝ PF (k) ⎠ .
F
Chd (PF ) = N (2.27)
( d2 )!
ρ∈Sd Td (2π )d j=1
∂k ρ j

Similarly, the top odd Chern number takes the familiar form [27] (d = odd):
20 2 Electron Dynamics: Concrete Physical Models
⎛ ⎞
d−1  dk
d
∂U (k)
(−1)ρ tr ⎝ U F∗ (k) ⎠ .
F
Chd (U F ) = i(iπ) 2
N (2.28)
d!!
ρ∈Sd Td (2π )d j=1
∂k ρ j

Throughout, S I will denote the group of permutations of the finite set I . In particular
Sd denotes the permutation group of {1, . . . , d}.
For the generic models (2.19), the top even Chern number can be formulated
[8, 24] using a real-space representation of the operators and the trace per volume
T ( ) = lim V →∞ tr V ( ) from Proposition 2.5:
⎛ ⎞
d  d
Chd (PF ) = (2πi) 2
( 2 )!
d N (−1)ρ T ⎝ PF (ω) i[PF (ω), X ρ j ] ⎠ . (2.29)
ρ∈Sd j=1

When the disorder and the magnetic fields are turned off, this expression become
identically with (2.27). In the general case, the quantization of (2.29) follows from:

Theorem 2.11 ([8, 24]) Let d be even and let {Pω }ω∈Ω be a family of covariant
projections over C N ⊗ 2 (Zd ) such that:
   d+1 
(1 + |x|)d+1 dP(ω) tr 0 Pω |x <∞. (2.30)
Ω
x∈Zd

d
Consider the family of operators on C2 2 ⊗ C N ⊗ 2 (Zd ):
   
Γ · (X + x0 ) 0 G ∗ω,x0
Fω,x0 = I ⊗ Pω I ⊗ Pω = , x0 ∈ (0, 1)d ,
|X + x0 | G ω,x0 0
(2.31)
where Γ = (Γ1 , . . . , Γd ) is an irreducible representation of the
even d-dimensional
complex Clifford algebra Cl d and Γ ·(X + x0 ) is a shorthand for dj=1 Γ j ⊗ I ⊗(X +
x0 ) j . Also, the second equality in (2.31) gives the decomposition of Fω,x0 w.r.t. to the
natural inner grading of Cl d . Then G ω,x0 is P-almost surely a Fredholm operator
on the range of I ⊗ Pω . Its almost sure Fredholm index is independent of x0 and
P-almost surely independent of ω ∈ Ω, and is given by the formula:
⎛ ⎞
d  d
 
Index G ω,x0 = (2iπ) 2
( 2 )!
d N (−1)ρ T ⎝ Pω i Pω , Xρj ⎠ . (2.32)
ρ∈Sd j=1

Remark 2.12 In the regime of strong disorder when the Fermi level lies in the essen-
tial spectrum, the physical interpretation of the top even Chern number in dimension
d = 2 has been elucidated in [8]. There, the reader can find a derivation of the finite-
temperature Kubo-formula for the conductivity tensor in the presence of disorder
and dissipation, together with a proof of the following limit:
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BO BERGMAN (1869—1967)

Kuunpaiste virralla.

Kuin synkät varjokuvat on vuoret etelän. Kivilaiturin ohitse

virran näen mustana vyöryvän.

Mut ylitse pyörteiden heittää

kuu juovansa loistavan,
ja keskellä sädesiltaa
vene keinuu kalastajan.

Hän verkkonsa vedestä nostaa.

Mitä soikaan ilta tää?
Kuin suomusten paljoudesta
joka silmukka kimmeltää.

Mut on vettä se ainoastaan,

jok' ei verkossa pysyä vois.
Kuunpaistetta kalastaa hän
ja laulaen soutaa pois.
 Tänä iltana virralta tuolta
mik' on saalis runoilijan?
Sai kuutamon paistetta kuplan,
pois vierivän unelman.

(Suom. Elina Vaara)

Sydän.

Sydän unelmista itää. Sydän muuten köyhäks jää. Siks

sateiden langeta pitää ja poudan lämmittää. Niin tähkään
ennättäymme ja mielin kiitollisin päin korjuun aikoja käymme,
alakuloista talveakin.

(Suom. Elina Vaara)

Viole d'Amour. (EV)

Soi hämyssä himmeä kieli, se vainajan muistoa soi

kevätiltana, jolloin mieli kuin nälkään hiutua voi… Sydän, tuttu
on tuskasi mulle. Nyt, lapsi rauhaton, levon päivä on saapunut
sulle. Hyvä unhoon nukkua on.

Oi hiljaisuutta maiden, joiss' ei asu elävää! Kädet henkien

autuaiden nyt viulua virittää. Ken luonani? Sydän palaa ja
vilusta värisee. Näen varjon. Otsaani salaa joku siivellä
hipaisee.
(Suom. Elina Vaara)
VILHELM EKELUND (1880—1949)

Leukadia.

Oi Eros, on sieluni tähti, mi vuodattaa verensä kuiviin

keskellä yön.

Oi Eros, on sieluni
säihkyvä kipinä
palosta sun tähtesi
kauhistavan.

Oi Eros, sun tähtes

epätoivoinen tytär,
halki avaruuden halaa
syöksyä hän

ja pysähtyä vasta, kun saavuttaa sun — vain tulessas hän

kuolla ja menehtyä voi!

Oi ota minut, Eros, ja säteihis sammuta minut! Oi,

suudelmiisi kuolla, kuolla mun suo!

(Suom. Elina Vaara)

Palvonta.

Kuin meri tuulinen heinäkuun auringossa,

on ruumiisi viileä, hurmaavan raikas.
Lunta ja ruusuja.

Kaste metsässä toukokuun, tuomet lähteen luona eivät niin

suloisesti tuoksu kuin sun tuoksuva suusi.

Ihmisen häikäisevä kauneus — oi katso: tomua, missä

kuljet, suutelee palvoen hämmentynyt orja.

(Suom. Elina Vaara)

Mentyäsi, armas.

Äkkiä niin — syvyydestä hämärähän valoon — kesken

pimeintä vuoden aikaa… Eros, Eros! Aistini oot hämmentänyt,
tuskaisesti harhaannutit sielun, joka häilyy pohjaa vailla…
Niinkuin kohtan salaiseen ois kosketettu, kauhunäky sieluun
nousi. Tuskani mun kumea ja mykistynyt tarunkaameana alkoi
elää…

Eros, Eros! minkä laulun huulilleni painoit barbaarisen,

hämärän? Sentään: eikö loista sielussani templi juhlallisna
niinkuin valo kevätaamun; eikö laula huoneessa mun
sydämeni liekki, joka täyttäis tasaisella huminallaan sonetin ja
oodin stroofit ikuiset?

(Suom. Elina Vaara)

ANDERS ÖSTERLING (1884—1981)

Fantasia etelän meren rannalla.

Minä riippuvan paviljongin meren äärelle rakensin. Siell'

aaltoin kuoroja vastaan soi lauluni aamuisin. Minä istutin
hedelmäpuita, ja kukkansa valkeat kevätvalossa
vaahtometsään ne sirottivat.

Kuin neidon jäsenet, hoikat tein pilarit loggiain, oli kevyet

kaaret, kuin niitä ois kantanut ilma vain. Kävi alhaalla autuas
läike, ja marmori väräjöi. Hymys karyatiidit, kun seinään vesi
hyrskyten löi.

Ja aamujen nousten ja soiden veden sinisen musiikin, minä

pylväskuistilta merta kuin veljeä tervehdin. Meren aavalta
lupauksen minä jumalten ilosta sain, kun veljeni jumalaista
join viiniä vain.

Yli vuorien, hiuksissansa lemu kasteen ja rypäleen, tuli

nainen haavaisin jaloin, pyys yöksi hän huoneeseen. Maan
syksystä saapuin hän raukes kuin joutsen väsynyt, mut
purppura pilvisen illan ties myrskyä nyt.
 Hänen viipyä soin ma, vieraan, tuon nymfin nimettömän.
Kuin salainen kohtalo, vaiti avas hymyillen sylinsä hän. Me
vaivuimme rakkauteemme, ja alhaalla varoittaen löi paisuvin
iskuin meren viha yöllinen.

Mut hurjasti kallio aamuun kuin särkyvä harppu soi, meren

titaanipuristus tieltään kun pohjan ja liitokset loi. Ja syleillen
kauhistuneina me kuljimme erilleen — hajos marmori
syvyyksihin meren raivostuneen.

Jäi kauas se. Raskaasti aika käy ylitse merien. Nyt laulan,
harmennut orja, ma kahleissa airojen. Mun kotini, nuoruuteni
lipas marmorinen tuo ikihiljaisuuteen vaipui Poseidonin luo.

Minä kevyen marmorihaaveen meren äärelle rakensin,

meren ylistykseksi loin ma ajan aamussa temppelin. Öin
palossa tähtien laulan nyt merelle pettymystäin, ja verkkaan
kaleeri keinuu mait' outoja päin.

(Suom. Elina Vaara)

Aamuhartaus.

Lokit valkeat kohoo aamun avaruutehen kuultavaan, kuin

syleillen, hiljaisesti meren sulaa ne hopeaan. Sadat siivet
valohon kimpoo kuin säkenet valkeat ja valkeiden lehtien lailla
alas jälleen vaipuvat.

Kuin soittoa kuulumatonta, joka etäältä hymisee, nyt

kuuliaisin rytmein lokit lennossa seurailee. Ja kevyet ruumiit
 leijaa kuin johtaissa salaisen lain, kuin aaltojen näkymätönten
lumivaahtona kimmaltain.

Veden peilissä neitseellisessä viri hiljainen väräjää, nyt

aamun tuloa hienot sävelvihmat tervehtää. Ei vasten
ruusuista rantaa lyö maininki ainutkaan, pian humisten
vaikenevat myös simpukat laulustaan.

Pyhä äiti pilvien, tuulten, meren avaruus rannaton, sun

rinnallas marmori valkein kuin usva talvinen on. Sinä
mahtava, simpukankuoriin joka virität musiikin, myös salli mun
korvani kuulla sävel tuulesi koraalin!

Päämäärättä, maailma, vastaan ota kauneuttasi en, joka

päivän lahjan ma korvaan öin verolla laulujen. Lokin lailla mun
hymnini kohoo avaruutehen kuultavaan, kuin syleillen,
hiljaisesti meren sulaa se hopeaan.

(Suom. Elina Vaara)

Odotus meren rannalla.

Meren rannalle tieni mun johtaa,

kun mainingit keinuen lyö.
Tulet virvojen silmiini hohtaa,
pian kietoo mun hiuksiinsa yö —
meren kostea yö.
Ah, miss' yhä viipyvät askeles sun?
Tule! Kun kätes lämpimän saan,
heti löytää uupunut sieluni mun
taas maan —
taas maan.

Jalanääniä etäältä kuulen ja kahinaa musliinin, kuvas

valkean hohtavan luulen nyt aaltoihin Kattegatin, siniaaltoihin.
Tule! Untuvaposkesi painua jo mun rintaani vasten suo
lepertääksesi, kunnes aurinko valon tuo — valon tuo.

Yhä suhisten rannalta ääni

soi taipuissa ruohikon,
mut epäillen painan ma pääni,
tuta saan: vain tuuli se on —
vain tuuli se on.
Yö kohta on poissa ja punertaa koi
yli harmaiden tiheikköjen.
Koko maailma valosta riemuita voi —
minä en —
minä en.

Meren rannalle tieni mun johtaa,

kun mainingit keinuen lyö.
Tulet virvojen silmiini hohtaa,
pian kietoo mun hiuksiinsa yö —
meren kostea yö.
Mut odotus turha yön keskellä näin
kidutusta on rakkauden:
veden pohjall' on kuolema, edessäin
syli sen —
syli sen.

On horrosta odotukseni,
se on tuskaa hämärtyvää.
Ah, ääni mun rakkauteni
meren myrskynä nyyhkyttää —
se nyyhkyttää!
läks kuolee, jos niitä nyt ripitä en,
sanat kätketyt rintaani mun.
Joko askelet halki maininkien
soi sun?
— Sun!

(Suom. Elina Vaara)

Aamun sydän

Lähelle ikuista aamua tulla määränä vaelluksen oli mulla.

Kaiken, minkä elämä soi, kestin ma, siintävä aamunkoi aina
mun eelläni loisti. Lähemmäs aamun sydäntä sain, kasteesta
nummien kukkivain kimposi kiuru — ja yön jo poisti.

(Suom. Lauri Viljanen)

BERTIL MAMLBERG (1889—1958)

Neitsyt.

Ilta painuu. Pursi ohi rantain

liukuu, ruumiis aphrodiisisen
verhotonta kauneutta kantain.
Virran nousten, virran vaipuin retki
nautinnollinen!
Aalto rannan piilipuita
kuvastelee hiljaa vierien.
Suljetuita
polviasi vasten lepää käden kukka valkoinen.

Kohti yön ja pyyteen juhlaa kulkee

ruusuin seppelöity alukses;
nuorukainen syliinsä sun sulkee,
hunnuttaen silmäis valon täyttyy pian haavehes
Liu'u, minne mieles halaa,
ohitsemme, syliin kaivatun;
ilta palaa,
pilvet kulkee, kedot tuoksuu, »Eros», kuiskaa
huules sun.

Keinut ohi rantain pehmeästi,

oksat jäseniäs hyväilee;
valo kultaa hiukses himmeästi,
yli arkaadisen seudun kaukaa huilut helisee.
Tuuletonna virta päilyy,
otsas yllä ilma tuuleton;
joskus häilyy
silkkipurjeet purren keinuin, kyyhkyspesä
kannell' on.

(Suom. Lauri Viljanen)

DAN ANDERSSON (1888—1920)

Laulu.

Heräs lempeni aikahan keväimen

veden leikkivän rannoilla viheriöillä.
Ja villihunajaa nuoruuden
Join kasteraikkailta niityiltä öillä.

Heräs Paison rannoilla rakkautein

Lohet hyppeli, hauet polskutti siellä.
Ja ma villin, kuohuvan laulun tein
keväthurmasta, ruusuista soittajan tiellä.

Monin keväin laulu se uusiutui

ja mun vereeni tultansa valoi.
Koko maailma viinihurmassa ui,
ja maat ja taivahat paloi.

Mut enää en niin voi rakastaa

kuin Paison rannoilla viheriöillä.
On lempeni vanha ja harmaaks saa,
ei villihunajaa löydä se öillä.
(Suom. Elina Vaara)

Soittoniekan hautaus. (LV)

Yllä Himmelmoran harjan viel? ei aamurusko näy, kun

kylästä, kas, kuollut viedähän. Yli kumpareiden pienten
kukkain saatto hiljaa käy all' aamutaivaan pilven viileän. Käy
raskaat saappaat viljasarkaa ruusunkirjavaa, päät raskaat
niinkuin rukoukseen jää. Pois erämaasta uneksijaa viedään,
vainajaa, yli niityn, jolla kaste kimmeltää.

Hän kummallinen oli, sanoo miehet mustissaan, usein

leivättä ja yksin, koditon. Kas kuningasta, ruusut puhuu, joita
poljetaan, kuollut kuningas ja uneksija on. On tie kuin monta
peninkulmaa, miehet haastelee, ja päivemmäll' on jalka
väsynyt. — Vain hiljaa käykää, varovasti, raidat suhisee, jokin
kukka kenties kuollut on nyt.

Mut kun arkku musta keinuu halki metsän keväisen, niin

aamuvirkku laiho vaikenee, ja länsituuli seisahtuu kuin
kuunnellakseen, ken niin raskahasti ruusuiss' astelee. Se on
soittoniekka Olli vain, saa kohu kuusihin, hän on kodittomat
vuodet päättänyt. — Se on hauskaa, vastaa tuuli, jos myrsky
olisin, koko matkan hälle soittaisin nyt.

Yli keltaisien soiden keinuu kuolleen kovat luut, päivän

riutuessa lepoon kalpeaan. Mut kun hehkuu iltaan vilpoisehen
puolukat ja puut, taas Himmelmoran kankaall' astutaan. Käy
uuvuksissa, murheissaan nyt miehet kotihin, päät raskaat
 niinkuin rukoukseen jää. Mut karkein jäljin polkevat he ruusut
haavoihin halki niityn, jolla kaste kimmeltää.

Hän on poissa, miehet virkkaa, nyt raskast' äidin on, joka

köyhäintaloon kulkea saa. Miks korot meitä murskaa, miks
kenkä tunnoton, näin haavoitetut ruusut vaikertaa. Yli
apiloiden pientareelta kuiskii ohdakkeet: kävi kankaalla nyt
tanssi Kuoleman. Sen vanhat kengät lokaan ovat teidät
tallanneet, kun se tanssi luilla uneksijan.

Yli ruohon, töllein harmajain yö lentää suhisten, tähdet

kalpeat pilveen hämärtäy. Yli nummen alas lampehen käy
valo läntisen, yli lummerikkaan liejun laulu käy. Ja laulain
puutteest' erämaan nyt myrsky, vaahtopää lyö ympärillä
saaren kallion. Yö rukouksen yllä vetten mustain virittää:
kuollut soittoniekka, uneksija on.

(Suom. Lauri Viljanen)

ERIK LINDORM (1889—1941):

Iltapäivä.

Tuli räiskyy, on ulkona sadesää, sumu lyhtyjä verhoo,

tuulee. Hänen vaimonsa vaatteita silittää, mies keittiöstä sen
kuulee.

Ovi lasten huoneen on raollaan —

miten siellä nyt temmelletään!
Kaikki he käyttävät keuhkojaan,
ei puutu heistä ketään.

Mut ilta kuluu jo loppuhun, ja hiillosta hämmennetään. Pian

on lyhyt hetki se poissa, kun ei puutu ketään.

(Suom. Elina Vaara)

Onnen hetki.
 Käsivarteni lastako tuudittaa, ja sen silmissä kuvani on? Ja
ulapat välkkyy, ja lämmin on maa ja taivas hattaraton!

Mitä aikoja on, mitä vuosia nää,

ken oon, mikä nimeni mun?
Sa naurava käärö, sa vaalea pää,
miten sain ma syliini sun?

Ma elän, ma elän! Ah, ennemmin ma miss' olen ollutkaan?

Kai varroin ma vuosia miljoonin tätä hetkeä ainoastaan.

(Suom. Lauri Viljanen)

Isä ja poika.

Järvessä värähtelee pilvijuovainen kuu. Sirkkojen sirinä

niityn heinässä vaientuu. Hämärän tuhka lankee yli päivän
poltetun. Ma kuljen kivistä rantaa ja pieni poikani mun.

Hän puhuu, viittoo ja väliin kivihin liukahtaa. Ma puristan

kättänsä pientä ja hienoa, ruskeaa. Hänen raikas
ihmettelynsä ei kysyen uupua vois. Ma hajamielisnä vastaan,
ja ajatus kiitää pois.

Miten kauan saankaan pitää sun pientä nyrkkiäs näin, ja

suojata sinua, tiesi jos kulkee kunneka päin? On ihme, kuinka
kauan noin armaana mulle näyt. Sa kasvat ja kauemmas
luotain sa päivä päivältä käyt.

Pojankainona kätkeyt — uhma sun tahtoas karkaisee. Sun

sielusi salassa itää, ja katseemme erkanee. Hämärät,
 polttavat tunteet sa hiljaisuutehen viet. Mun täytyy sivulla
seistä, on meillä eri tiet.

Sinä haaveeni tietäisitpä yli vuotees, poikani mun! Olen

kätkenyt kirjoituspöytään ens töppöses valkeat sun. Pian
keskeen maailman kengin käyt suurin, painavin. Ne omaa
tietään polkee — ja isää, äitiäkin.

Se kestää ja kärsiä täytyy, jos kuinka raskasta ois. Miten

lujasti puristankin, kätes pieni on liukuva pois. Pois luotani
kuitenkin kuljet, ken kasvua estäiskään? — Nyt, poikani,
kiiruhdamme, jo kotiin ehditään!

(Suom. Lauri Viljanen)

Arki-ilta.

Taas arki-iltaan ihmisten soi melu, haukku koirien, ja kotiin

mustain joukkoin tie nyt päivän taiston jälkeen vie. Soi
raitioiden signaalit ja säihkyy valoreklaamit. Ja kaarilamppuin
tuikkeeseen käy pahe maalikasvoineen.

On taasen ilta arkinen, ja kimeät on äänet sen. Miks

ahdistusta tunnenkaan? Ma katson ihmisiä maan: sameina
syntyy, kuolee nuo ja kurjain kaivoin pyrkii luo, vaikk' yllä
kuonan, rihkaman nään linnunradan loistavan.

Oi ihmiskunta, iloton ties loan, melun halki on. Vaikk' kattos

yllä näetkin sa aurinkoja miljoonin, vuossatais-syvä paiste tuo
 ei sieluus puhtautta luo. Oi, kuule laulu korkeuden! Maan
pääll' on ilta arkinen.

(Suom. Lauri Viljanen)

Laulu nuoruudessa. (LV)

Maan juhlihin
oon kutsuttu, ma vieras vähäisin.
Saan alla päivän kultakruunun elää.
Ma vaeltaa
saan jonkun vuoden kesken pauhinaa,
ja joku laulu huuliltani helää.

Käyn hymyillen
ma silmin raikkahin, ja hellien
mun käteni, ah, kaikkeen koskettavat.
Tie auringon
ja ilmain loisto ylläni mun on,
maat, meret kaipuulleni kangastavat.

Oon vieras vain, ma vähäks aikaa tänne jäädä sain. — Pian

lähdet, kuolo korvahani toistaa. Ma tiedän sen, tuon
salaisuuden suuren, iloisen, siks silmäni mun raikkahasti
loistaa.

(Suom. Lauri Viljanen)

GUSTAF JOHANSSON (1891—1925)

Ballaadi Johanssoneista.

Oli korppi, korkea iältään, joka puolukkamäellä eli. Tavall'

lintujen istui se männyssään ja niskaansa ojenteli ja käheästi
viisauttaan huus metsälle, maailmalle. Oli saanut ruutia
maistaessaan se haulin siipensä alle.

Tuli, hunnussa vihma kuutamon, Hämy-neitsyt tähtien

myötä — makas päissään metsämies Johansson, sepät
aivoissa tekivät työtä. Ja korppi se mietti: »Oi Johansson,
pian pois sinun suvesi joutaa. Miks kaukaa, miss' olet
tuntematon, et naista voi itselles noutaa?»

Punass' illan nainenpa kuitenkin tuli metsästä tanssivan

jalan: lasi lensi pirstoiksi Johanssonin, ja hän vannoi alttihin
valan. Näki korppi: nyt vuosi Johanssonin miten suloiseksi
saikaan. Lumi särki sen haavaa, kun vihdoinkin oli tultu
täytehen aikaan.

Yön jouluisen tuikkiessa, kun jänis metsän laitaan loikki,

valon kynttilä loi mökin ruutuhun ja hiljaisen pihan poikki. Ja