Quantized Stabilizer-Rényi Boundary Response across Fermionic SPT Transitions

Open boundaries host symmetry-protected Majorana modes, yet their imprint on the stabilizer Rényi entropy is obscured by a nonuniversal volume law. At Rényi index $α=1/2$, we isolate a bulk-subtracted boundary response in free-fermion BDI chains using exact finite-open-chain relations, large-$L$ Pfaffian evaluations, and direct positive-weight checks. Across a mass inversion, this response approaches $|Δω|\ln 2$, where $Δω$ is the change in winding number. The response survives primitive bulk deformations, the tested local boundary perturbations, and broken bulk duality. Thus, for the families studied here, the boundary response counts the Majorana channels that change the fermionic SPT index.

Source: arXiv:2608.09749v1 - http://arxiv.org/abs/2608.09749v1 PDF: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2608.09749v1 Original Link: http://arxiv.org/abs/2608.09749v1