Exactly soluble spin-$\frac{1}2$ models on three-dimensional lattices are proposed by generalizing Kitaev model on honeycomb lattice to three dimensions with proper periodic boundary conditions. The simplest example is spins on a diamond lattice which is exactly soluble. The ground state sector of the model may be mapped into a p-wave paired state on cubic lattice. We observe for the first time a topological phase transition from a gapless phase to a gapped phase in an exactly soluble spin model. Furthermore, the gapless phase can not be gapped by a perturbation breaking the time reversal symmetry. Unknotted and unlinked Wilson loops arise as eigen excitations, which may evolute into linked and knotted loop excitations. We show that these closed string excitations obey abelian statistics in the gapped phase and non-abelian statistics in the gapless phase.
We construct an exactly solvable lattice model of a fractional Weyl semimetal (FWS). The low energy theory of this strongly interacting state is that of a Weyl semimetal built out of fractionally charged fermions. We show the existence of a universally quantized and fractional circular photogalvanic effect (CPGE) and a violation of the Wiedemann-Franz law in the system. Together with a spectral gap in the single-particle electronic Green's function they provide strong experimental signatures for this exotic gapless state of matter.
Following an earlier construction of exactly soluble lattice models for abelian fractional topological insulators in two and three dimensions, we construct here an exactly soluble lattice model for a non-abelian $ν=1$ quantum Hall state and a non-abelian topological insulator in two dimensions. We show that both models are topologically ordered, exhibiting fractionalized charge, ground state degeneracy on the torus and protected edge modes. The models feature non-abelian vortices which carry fractional electric charge in the quantum Hall case and spin in the topological insulator case. We anal…
We construct exactly soluble lattice models for fractionalized, time reversal invariant electronic insulators in 2 and 3 dimensions. The low energy physics of these models is exactly equivalent to a non-interacting topological insulator built out of fractionally charged fermionic quasiparticles. We show that some of our models have protected edge modes (in 2D) and surface modes (in 3D), and are thus fractionalized analogues of topological insulators. We also find that some of the 2D models do not have protected edge modes -- that is, the edge modes can be gapped out by appropriate time reversa…
Motivated by the work of Kitaev, we construct an exactly soluble spin-$\frac{1}2$ model on honeycomb lattice whose ground states are identical to $Δ_{1x}p_x+Δ_{1y}p_y+i(Δ_{2x}p_x+Δ_{2y}p_y)$-wave paired fermions on square lattice, with tunable paring order parameters. We derive a universal phase diagram for this general p-wave theory which contains a gapped A phase and a topologically non-trivial B phase. We show that the gapless condition in the B phase is governed by a generalized inversion (G-inversion) symmetry under $p_x\leftrightarrow {Δ_{1y}\over Δ_{1x}} p_y$. The G-inversion symmetric …
The undeformed limit of the dilute two-color braid-monoid algebra gives a natural basis for the description of spin-1/2 ladder models, and allows different Baxterization Ansatze. Based on this observation we find an entire class of exactly soluble generalized isotropic spin-1/2 lader models.
It is shown that for some special values of Hamiltonian parameters the Tomonaga-Luttinger model with nonlinear dispersion is unitary equivalent to the system of noninteracting fermions. For such parameter values the density-density propagator of the Tomonaga-Luttinger Hamiltonian with nonlinear dispersion can be found exactly. In a generic situation the exact solution can be used as a reference point around which a perturbative expansion in orders of certain irrelevant operators may be constructed.
In this paper we propose an exactly soluble model in two-dimensional honeycomb lattice, from which two phases are found. One is the usual Chern/topological insulating state and the other is an interesting $Z_2$ fractionalized Chern/topological insulator. While their bulk properties are similar, the edge-states of physical electrons are quite different. The single electron excitation of the former shows a free particle-like behavior while the latter one is gapped, which provides a definite signature to identify the fractionalized states. The transition between these two phases is found to fall …
We investigate the topological degeneracy that can be realized in Abelian fractional quantum spin Hall states with multiply connected gapped boundaries. Such a topological degeneracy (also dubbed as "boundary degeneracy") does not require superconducting proximity effect and can be created by simply applying a depletion gate to the quantum spin Hall material and using a generic spin-mixing term (e.g., due to backscattering) to gap out the edge modes. We construct an exactly soluble microscopic model manifesting this topological degeneracy and solve it using the recently developed technique [S.…
We propose a generic construction of exactly soluble \emph{local bosonic models} that realize various topological orders with gappable boundaries. In particular, we construct an exactly soluble bosonic model that realizes a 3+1D $Z_2$ gauge theory with emergent fermionic Kramer doublet. We show that the emergence of such a fermion will cause the nucleation of certain topological excitations in space-time without pin$^+$ structure. The exactly soluble model also leads to a statistical transmutation in 3+1D. In addition, we construct exactly soluble bosonic models that realize 2 types of time-re…
We construct two exactly soluble lattice spin models that demonstrate the importance of three-loop braiding statistics for the classification of 3D gapped quantum phases. The two models are superficially similar: both are gapped and both support particle-like and loop-like excitations similar to that of charges and vortex lines in a $\mathbb{Z}_2 \times \mathbb{Z}_2$ gauge theory. Furthermore, in both models the particle excitations are bosons, and in both models the particle and loop excitations have the same mutual braiding statistics. The difference between the two models is only apparent w…
We construct an exactly soluble Hamiltonian on the D=3 cubic lattice, whose ground state is a topological phase of bosons protected by time reversal symmetry, i.e a symmetry protected topological (SPT) phase. In this model anyonic excitations are shown to exist at the surface but not in the bulk. The statistics of these surface anyons is explicitly computed and shown to be identical to the 3-fermion Z2 model, a variant of Z2 topological order which cannot be realized in a purely D=2 system with time reversal symmetry. Thus the model realizes a novel surface termination for SPT phases, which on…
The Z_2 topological order in Z_2 spin liquid and in exactly soluble Kitaev toric code model is the simplest topological order for 2+1D bosonic systems. More general 2+1D bosonic topologically ordered states can be constructed via exact soluble string-net models. However, the most important topologically ordered phases of matter are arguably the fermionic fractional quantum Hall states. Topological phases of matter for fermion systems are strictly richer than their bosonic counterparts because locality has different meanings for the two kinds of systems. In this paper, we describe a simple ferm…
We study a model for a quantum critical point in two spatial dimensions between a semimetallic phase, characterized by a stable quadratic Fermi node, and an ordered phase, in which the spectrum develops a band gap. The quantum critical behavior can be computed exactly, and we explicitly derive the scaling laws of various observables. While the order-parameter correlation function at criticality satisfies the usual power law with anomalous exponent $η_ϕ= 2$, the correlation length and the expectation value of the order parameter exhibit essential singularities upon approaching the quantum criti…
I employ an exactly soluble toy model to investigate why unrenormalized perturbation theory works better than fully self-consistent approaches in describing the correlation-driven metal-insulator transition.
We study a set of exactly soluble spin models in one and two dimensions for any spin $S$. Its ground state, the excitation spectrum, quantum phase transition points, as well as dimensional crossover are determined.
We demonstrate how to directly study non-Abelian statistics for a wide class of exactly solvable many-body quantum systems. By employing exact eigenstates to simulate the adiabatic transport of a model's quasiparticles, the resulting Berry phase provides a direct demonstration of their non-Abelian statistics. We apply this technique to Kitaev's honeycomb lattice model and explicitly demonstrate the existence of non-Abelian Ising anyons confirming the previous conjectures. Finally, we present the manipulations needed to transport and detect the statistics of these quasiparticles in the laborato…
We present an exactly solvable model for synthetic anyons carrying non-Abelian flux. The model corresponds to a two-dimensional electron gas in a magnetic field with a specific spin interaction term, which allows only fully aligned spin states in the ground state; the ground state subspace is thus two-fold degenerate. This system is perturbed with identical solenoids carrying a non-Abelian gauge potential. We explore dynamics of the ground state as these solenoids are adiabatically braided and show they behave as anyons with a non-Abelian flux. Such a system represents a middle ground between …
We introduce an exactly solvable SU(2) symmetric Kitaev model with exotic spin excitations. With time reversal symmetry (TRS), the ground state is a spin liquid with gapless or gapped spin-1 but fermionic excitations. When TRS is broken, the resulting spin liquid exhibits deconfined vortex excitations which carry spin-1/2 quantum number and obey non-Abelian statistics. We show that this SU(2) invariant non-Abelian spin liquid exhibits spin quantum Hall effect with quantized spin Hall conductivity σ^s_{xy}=\hbar/2π, and that the spin response is effectively described the SO(3) level-1 Chern-Sim…
We describe four closely related Hubbard-like models (models A, B, C and D) of particles that can hop on a 2D Kagome lattice interacting via Coulomb repulsion. The particles can be either bosons (models A and B) or (spinless) fermions (models C and D). Models A and C also include a ring exchange term. In all four cases we solve equations in the model parameters to arrive at an exactly soluble point whose ground state manifold is the extensively degenerate ``d-isotopy space'' $\bar{V}_d$, 0<d<2. Near the ``special'' values, $d = 2 \cos π/k+2$, $\bar{V}_d$ should collapse to a stable topological…
We propose an extended Hubbard model on a 2D Kagome lattice with an additional ring-exchange term. The particles can be either bosons or spinless fermions . At a special filling fraction of 1/6 the model is analyzed in the lowest non-vanishing order of perturbation theory. Such ``undoped'' model is closely related to the Quantum Dimer Model. We show how to arrive at an exactly soluble point whose ground state manifold is the extensively degenerate ``d-isotopy space'', a necessary precondition for for a certain type of non-Abelian topological order. Near the ``special'' values, $d = 2 \cos π/(k…
We investigate the generic features of the low energy dynamical spin structure factor of the Kitaev honeycomb quantum spin liquid perturbed away from its exact soluble limit by generic symmetry-allowed exchange couplings. We find that the spin gap persists in the Kitaev-Heisenberg model, but generally vanishes provided more generic symmetry-allowed interactions exist. We formulate the generic expansion of the spin operator in terms of fractionalized Majorana fermion operators according to the symmetry enriched topological order of the Kitaev spin liquid, described by its projective symmetry gr…
We established a large class of exactly soluble spin liquids and chiral spin liquids on three dimensional helix lattices by introducing Kitaev-type's spin coupling. In the chiral spin liquids, exact stable ground states with spontaneous breaking of the time reversal symmetry are found. The fractionalized loop excitations in both the spin and chiral spin liquids obey non-abelian statistics. We characterize this kind of statistics by non-abelian Berry phase and quantum algebra relation. The topological correlation of loops is independent of local order parameter and it measures the intrinsic glo…
Quantum information theory and strongly correlated electron systems share a common theme of macroscopic quantum entanglement. In both topological error correction codes and theories of quantum materials (spin liquid, heavy fermion and high-$T_c$ systems) entanglement is implemented by means of an emergent gauge symmetry. Inspired by these connections, we introduce a simple model for fermions moving in the deconfined phase of a $\mathbb Z_2$ gauge theory, by coupling Kitaev's toric code to mobile fermions. This permits us to exactly solve the ground state of this system and map out its phase di…
We study the braiding statistics of particle-like and loop-like excitations in 2D and 3D gauge theories with finite, Abelian gauge group. The gauge theories that we consider are obtained by gauging the symmetry of gapped, short-range entangled, lattice boson models. We define a set of quantities --- called {\it topological invariants} --- that summarize some of the most important parts of the braiding statistics data for these systems. Conveniently, these invariants are always Abelian phases, even if the gauge theory supports excitations with non-Abelian statistics. We compute these invariants…
An exactly soluble model describing a spin S=1 antiferromagnetic chain doped with mobile S=1/2 carriers is constructed. In its continuum limit the undoped state is described by three gapless Majorana fermions composing the SU(2) triplet. Doping adds to this a scalar charge field and a singlet Majorana fermion with different velocity. We argue that this mode survives when the Haldane gap is added.
We extend the Yao-Kivelson decorated honeycomb lattice Kitaev model [Phys. Rev. Lett. 99,247203 (2007)] of an exactly solvable chiral spin liquid by including disordered exchange couplings. We have determined the phase diagram of this system and found that disorder enlarges the region of the topological non-Abelian phase with finite Chern number. We study the energy level statistics as a function of disorder and other parameters in the Hamiltonian, and show that the phase transition between the non-Abelian and Abelian phases of the model at large disorder can be associated with pair annihilati…
Three dimensional topological superconductors (TScs) protected by time reversal (T) symmetry are characterized by gapless Majorana cones on their surface. Free fermion phases with this symmetry (class DIII) are indexed by an integer n, of which n=1 is realized by the B-phase of superfluid Helium-3. Previously it was believed that the surface must be gapless unless time reversal symmetry is broken. Here we argue that a fully symmetric and gapped surface is possible in the presence of strong interactions, if a special type of topological order appears on the surface. The topological order realiz…
In topological phases of matter, the interplay between intrinsic topological order and global symmetry is an interesting task. In the study of topological orders with discrete global symmetry, an important systematic approach is the construction of exactly soluble lattice models. However, for continuous global symmetry, in particular the electromagnetic $U(1)$, the lattice approach has been less systematically developed. In this paper, we introduce a systematic construction of effective theories for a large class of abelian topological orders on three-dimensional spacetime lattice with electro…
We investigate the phase diagram of a generalized spin-1/2 quantum antiferromagnet on a ladder with rung, leg, diagonal, and ring-exchange interactions. We consider the exactly soluble models associated with the problem, obtain the exact ground states which exist for certain parameter regimes, and apply a variety of perturbative techniques in the regime of strong ring-exchange coupling. By combining these approaches with considerations related to the discrete Z_4 symmetry of the model, we present the complete phase diagram.
We introduce both an exactly solvable model and a coupled-layer construction for an exotic, three-dimensional phase of matter with immobile topological excitations that carry a protected internal degeneracy. Unitary transformations on this degenerate Hilbert space may be implemented by braiding certain point-like excitations. This provides a new way of extending non-Abelian statistics to three-dimensions.
