Hermitian Bulk -- Non-Hermitian Boundary Correspondence

Non-Hermitian band theory distinguishes between line gaps and point gaps. While point gaps can give rise to intrinsic non-Hermitian band topology without Hermitian counterparts, line-gapped systems can always be adiabatically deformed to a Hermitian or anti-Hermitian limit. Here we show that line-gap topology and point-gap topology are intricately connected: topological line-gapped systems in $d$ dimensions generically induce nontrivial point-gap topology on their $(d-1)$-dimensional boundaries. We explain how this phenomenon can be guaranteed by enforcing suitable internal and spatial symmetries. The non-Hermitian boundary topology further leads to higher-order skin modes, as well as chiral and helical hinge modes, that are protected by point gaps and hence unique to non-Hermitian systems. We identify all the symmetry classes where bulk line-gap topology induces boundary point-gap topology and establish the correspondence between their topological invariants. There also exist some symmetry classes where the Hermitian edge states remain stable, in the sense that even a point gap cannot open on the boundary.