Dissipative Topological Phase Transition with Strong System-Environment Coupling

Protection of topological phases in environments is essential for topological quantum technologies. In this work, we study how a topological system interplays with its environment. We find that the topological phase survives the environment for an emergent translational symmetry in the environment-induced interaction. The strong system-environment coupling leads to a transition between the topological and nontopological phases. This phase transition not only presents an intrinsic relation between environment-induced decay and spectrum width of the topological system, but also signals a nontrivial change of dissipation of the edge states; namely, a dissipative topological phase transition. Near the critical point, edge states are protected against decoherence. Our work uncovers nontrivial topologies and protected edge states due to the interplay between system and environment in the strong-coupling regime.