Thouless pumping represents a powerful concept to probe quantized topological invariants in quantum systems. We explore this mechanism in a generalized Rice-Mele Fermi-Hubbard model characterized by the presence of competing onsite and intersite interactions. While large on-site repulsion leads to a breakdown of quantized pumping , sufficiently large intersite interactions allow for an interaction-induced recovery of Thouless pumps. The stable topological transport at large interactions is connected to the presence of a spontaneous bond-order-wave in the ground-state phase diagram of the model. We also discuss a concrete experimental setup based on ultracold magnetic atoms in an optical lattice.
The article can be found here: Quantum, the pre-print can be accessed here: arXiv