Chiral edge waves in a dance-based human topological insulator

• Published in: Science advances Vol. 10; no. 35; p. eadh7810
• Main Authors: Du, Matthew, Pérez-Sánchez, Juan B, Campos-Gonzalez-Angulo, Jorge A, Koner, Arghadip, Mellini, Federico, Pannir-Sivajothi, Sindhana, Poh, Yong Rui, Schwennicke, Kai, Sun, Kunyang, van den Wildenberg, Stephan, Karzen, Dylan, Barron, Alec, Yuen-Zhou, Joel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Association for the Advancement of Science 30-08-2024
• Subjects: Physical and Materials Sciences; Physics; SciAdv r-articles
• ISSN: 2375-2548; 2375-2548
• DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adh7810

Topological insulators are insulators in the bulk but feature chiral energy propagation along the boundary. This property is topological in nature and therefore robust to disorder. Originally discovered in electronic materials, topologically protected boundary transport has since been observed in many other physical systems. Thus, it is natural to ask whether this phenomenon finds relevance in a broader context. We choreograph a dance in which a group of humans, arranged on a square grid, behave as a topological insulator. The dance features unidirectional flow of movement through dancers on the lattice edge. This effect persists when people are removed from the dance floor. Our work extends the applicability of wave physics to dance.