Topological phase in one-dimensional Rashba wire

We study the possible topological phase in a one-dimensional (1D) quantum wire with an oscillating Rashba spin-orbital coupling in real space. It is shown that there are a pair of particle-hole symmetric gaps forming in the bulk energy band and fractional boundary states residing in the gap when the system has an inversion symmetry. These states are topologically nontrivial and can be characterized by a quantized Berry phase ±π or nonzero Chern number through dimensional extension. When the Rashba spin-orbital coupling varies slowly with time, the system can pump out 2 charges in a pumping cycle because of the spin flip effect. This quantized pumping is protected by topology and is robust against moderate disorders as long as the disorder strength does not exceed the opened energy gap.