Scattering and quasilevels in the SSH model

Topological insulator is a special type of material that represents an insulator in the interior (“in bulk”) and conducts electricity on the surface. The simplest topological insulator is a finite chain of atoms in polyacetylene. In the last decade topological insulators are actively studied in the physics literature. A great interest to topological insulators (and also to topologically similar superconducting systems) is due to the presence of a link between “volume” and “boundary”. In this article, we have studied the discrete model SSH (Su–Schrieffer–Heeger) for polyacetylene. This model describes an electron in a one-dimensional chain of atoms with two alternating amplitudes of the transition to a neighboring atom. We have found the spectrum and resolution of this operator. The quasilevels (eigenvalues and resonances) in the case of a small potential have been investigated. In addition, we obtained a solution of the Lippmann–Schwinger equation and asymptotic formulas for the probability of transmission and reflection in case of small perturbation.