Gapless States Localized along a Staircase Edge in Second-Order Topological Insulators

A second-order topological insulator on a two-dimensional square lattice hosts zero-dimensional states inside a band gap. They are localized near 90 and 270° corners constituting an edge of the system. When the edge is in a staircase form consisting of these two corners, two families of edge states (i.e., one-dimensional states localized near the edge) appear as a result of the hybridization of zero-dimensional states. We identify symmetry that makes them gapless. We also show that a pair of nontrivial winding numbers associated with this symmetry guarantee a gapless spectrum of edge states, indicating that bulk–boundary correspondence holds in this topological insulator with a staircase edge.