One-dimensional gapped spin chains with symmetry PSU(N) = SU(N)/Z_N are known to possess N different topological phases. In this paper, we introduce a non-local string order parameter which characterizes each of these N phases unambiguously. Numerics confirm that our order parameter allows to extract a quantized topological invariant from a given non-degenerate gapped ground state wave function. Discontinuous jumps in the discrete topological order that arise when varying physical couplings in the Hamiltonian may be used to detect quantum phase transitions between different topological phases.
We study lattice Hamiltonian realisations of (3+1)d Dijkgraaf-Witten theory with gapped boundaries. In addition to the bulk loop-like excitations, the Hamiltonian yields bulk dyonic string-like excitations that terminate at gapped boundaries. Using a tube algebra approach, we classify such excitations and derive the corresponding representation theory. Via a dimensional reduction argument, we relate this tube algebra to that describing (2+1)d boundary point-like excitations at interfaces between two gapped boundaries. Such point-like excitations are well known to be encoded into a bicategory o…
Topological phases protected by symmetry can occur in gapped and---surprisingly---in critical systems. We consider non-interacting fermions in one dimension with spinless time-reversal symmetry. It is known that the phases are classified by a topological invariant $ω$ and a central charge $c$. We investigate the correlations of string operators, giving insight into the interplay between topology and criticality. In the gapped phases, these non-local string order parameters allow us to extract $ω$. Remarkably, ratios of correlation lengths are universal. In the critical phases, the scaling dime…
Recently we conjectured that a certain set of universal topological quantities characterize topological order in any dimension. Those quantities can be extracted from the universal overlap of the ground state wave functions. For systems with gapped boundaries, these quantities are representations of the mapping class group $MCG(\mathcal M)$ of the space manifold $\mathcal M$ on which the systems lives. We will here consider simple examples in three dimensions and give physical interpretation of these quantities, related to fusion algebra and statistics of particle and string excitations. In pa…
We consider various two-leg ladder models exhibiting gapped phases. All of these phases have short-ranged valence bond ground states, and they all exhibit string order. However, we show that short-ranged valence bond ground states divide into two topologically distinct classes, and as a consequence, there exist two topologically distinct types of string order. Therefore, not all gapped phases belong to the same universality class. We show that phase transitions occur when we interpolate between models belonging to different topological classes, and we study the nature of these transitions.
We compute the spin structure factor of XXZ spin chains in the Heisenberg and gapped (Ising) regimes in the high-temperature limit for nonzero magnetization, within the framework of generalized hydrodynamics including diffusive corrections. The structure factor shows a hierarchy of timescales in the gapped phase, owing to $s$-spin magnon bound states (`strings') of various sizes. Although short strings move ballistically, long strings move primarily diffusively as a result of their collisions with short strings. The interplay between these effects gives rise to anomalous power-law decay of the…
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 symm…
In this letter, we report our systematic construction of the lattice Hamiltonian model of topological orders on open surfaces, with explicit boundary terms. We do this mainly for the Levin-Wen stringnet model. The full Hamiltonian in our approach yields a topologically protected, gapped energy spectrum, with the corresponding wave functions robust under topology-preserving transformations of the lattice of the system. We explicitly present the wavefunctions of the ground states and boundary elementary excitations. We construct the creation and hopping operators of boundary quasi-particles. We …
The ground-state properties of a spin $S=1/2$ tetrameric Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chain with alternating couplings AF$_{1}$-AF$_{2}$-AF$_{1}$% -F (AF and F denote antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic couplings, respectively) are studied by means of the density matrix renormalization group method. Two plateaux of magnetization $m$ are found at $m=0$ and 1/4% . It is shown that in such a spin-1/2 AF system, there is a gap from the singlet ground state to the triplet excited states in the absence of a magnetic field. The spin-spin correlation function decays exponentially, and the gapped state…
A simple picture for the spectrum of the one-dimensional Hubbard model is presented using a classification of the eigenstates based on an intuitive bound-state Bethe-Ansatz approach. This approach allows us to prove a "string hypothesis" for complex momenta and derive an exact formulation of the Bethe-Ansatz equations including all states. Among other things we show that all gapped eigenstates have the Bethe-Ansatz form, contrary to assertions in the literature. The simplest excitations in the upper Hubbard band are computed: we find an unusual dispersion close to half-filling.
We study the gapped phase of Kitaev's honeycomb model (a Z_2 spin liquid) in the presence of lattice defects. We find that some dislocations and bond defects carry unpaired Majorana fermions. Physical excitations associated with these defects are (complex) fermion modes made out of two (real) Majorana fermions connected by a Z_2 gauge string. The quantum state of these modes is robust against local noise and can be changed by winding a Z_2 vortex around a dislocation. The exact solution respects gauge invariance and reveals a crucial role of the gauge field in the physics of Majorana modes.
We study the correspondence between boundary spectrum of non-chiral topological orders on an open manifold $\mathcal{M}$ with gapped boundaries and the entanglement spectrum in the bulk of gapped topological orders on a closed manifold. The closed manifold is bipartitioned into two subsystems, one of which has the same topology as $\mathcal{M}$. Specifically, we focus on the case of generalized string-net models and discuss the cases where $\mathcal{M}$ is a disk or a cylinder. When $\mathcal{M}$ has the topology of a cylinder, different combinations of boundary conditions of the cylinder will…
Whether a doped hole propagates as a Bloch wave or not is an important issue of doped Mott physics. Here we examine this problem based on the quasiparticle spectral weight $Z$ distribution, calculated by density matrix renormalization group (DMRG). By tuning the anisotropy of a two-leg $t$-$J$ ladder without closing the background spin gap, the $Z$ distribution unambiguously reveals a transition of the single hole state from a Bloch wave to a novel one with spontaneous translational symmetry breaking. We further establish a direct connection of such a transition with a nonlocal phase string en…
One-dimensional gapped systems are often characterized by a 'hidden' non-local order parameter, the so-called string order. Due to the gap, thermodynamic properties are robust against a weak higher-dimensional coupling between such chains or ladders. To the contrary, we find that the string order is not stable and decays for arbitrary weak inter-chain or inter-ladder coupling. We investigate the vanishing of the order for three different systems: spin-one Haldane chains, band insulators, and the transverse-field Ising model. Using perturbation theory and bosonization, we show that the fragilit…
Topology in quantum matter is typically associated with gapped phases. For example, in symmetry protected topological (SPT) phases, the bulk energy gap localizes edge modes near the boundary. In this work we identify a new mechanism that leads to topological phases which are not only gapless but where the absence of a gap is essential. These `intrinsically gapless SPT phases' have no gapped counterpart and are hence also distinct from recently discovered examples of gapless SPT phases. The essential ingredient of these phases is that on-site symmetries act in an anomalous fashion at low energi…
We use the variational matrix-product ansatz to study elementary excitations in the S=1/2 ladder with additional diagonal coupling, equivalent to a single S=1/2 chain with alternating exchange and next-nearest neighbor interaction. In absence of alternation the elementary excitation consists of two free S=1/2 particles ("spinons") which are solitons in the dimer order. When the nearest-neighbor exchange alternates, the "spinons" are confined into one S=1 excitation being a soliton in the generalized string order. Variational results are found to be in a qualitative agreement with the exact dia…
Topological quantum matter is typically associated with gapped phases and edge modes protected by the bulk gap. In contrast, recent work (Phys. Rev. B 104, 075132) proposed intrinsically gapless topological phases that, in one dimension, carry protected edge modes only when the bulk is a gapless Luttinger liquid. The edge modes of such a topological Luttinger liquid (TLL) descend from a nonlocal string order that is forbidden in gapped phases and whose precise form depends on the symmetry class of the system. In this work, we propose a powerful and unbiased entanglement-based smoking gun signa…
The spectra and role in the spin dynamical properties of bound states of elementary magnetic excitations named Bethe strings that occur in some integrable spin and electronic one-dimensional models have recently been identified and realized in several materials by experiments. Corresponding theoretical studies have usually relied on the one-dimensional spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet in a magnetic field. At the isotropic point, it describes the large onsite repulsion U limit of the spin degrees of freedom of the one-dimensional fermionic Hubbard model with one electron per site in a magnet…
Using Quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we study the spin-1/2 Heisenberg model on a two-dimensional lattice formed by coupling diagonal ladders. The model hosts an antiferromagnetic Néel phase, a rung singlet product phase, and a topological none trivial Haldane phase, separated by two quantum phase transitions. We show that the two quantum critical points are all in the three-dimensional O(3) universality class. The properties of the two gapped phases, including the finite-size behavior of the string orders in the Haldane phase, are studied. We show that the surface formed by the ladders ends …
Recently, a class of tensor networks called isometric tensor network states (isoTNS) was proposed which generalizes the canonical form of matrix product states to tensor networks in higher dimensions. While this ansatz allows for efficient numerical computations, it remained unclear which phases admit an isoTNS representation. In this work, we show that two-dimensional string-net liquids, which represent a wide variety of topological phases including discrete gauge theories, admit an exact isoTNS representation. We further show that the isometric form can be preserved after applying a finite d…
We study indicators of broken time-reversal and parity symmetries in gapped topological phases of matter. We focus on phases realized by Levin-Wen string-net models, and generalize the string-net model to describe phases which break parity and time-reversal symmetries. We do this by introducing an extra degree of freedom into the string-net graphical calculus, which takes the form of a branch cut located at each vertex of the underlying string-net lattice. We also work with string-net graphs defined on arbitrary (non-trivalent) graphs, which reveals otherwise hidden information about certain c…
We consider the string-net model on the honeycomb lattice for Ising anyons in the presence of a string tension. This competing term induces a nontrivial dynamics of the non-Abelian anyonic quasiparticles and may lead to a breakdown of the topological phase. Using high-order series expansions and exact diagonalizations, we determine the robustness of this doubled Ising phase which is found to be separated from two gapped phases. An effective quantum dimer model emerges in the large tension limit giving rise to two different translation symmetry-broken phases. Consequently, we obtain four transi…
We develop a scheme to make exactly solvable gauge theories whose electric flux lines host (1+1)-dimensional topological phases. We use this exact `decorated-string-net' framework to construct several classes of interesting models. In particular, we construct an exactly solvable model of a quantum spin liquid whose (gapped) elementary excitations form doublets under an internal symmetry, and hence may be regarded as spin-carrying spinons. The model may be formulated, and is solvable, in any number of dimensions, on any bipartite graph. Another example, in any dimension, has $Z_2$ topological o…
We study the gapped phase of Kitaev's honeycomb model (a $Z_2$ spin liquid) on a lattice with topological defects. We find that some dislocations and string defects carry unpaired Majorana fermions. Physical excitations associated with these defects are (complex) fermion modes made out of two (real) Majorana fermions connected by a $Z_2$ gauge string. The quantum state of these modes is robust against local noise and can be changed by winding a $Z_2$ vortex around one of the dislocations. The exact solution respects gauge invariance and reveals a crucial role of the gauge field in the physics …
We study gapped systems with anomalous time-reversal symmetry and global gravitational anomaly in three and four spacetime dimensions. These systems describe topological order on the boundary of bosonic Symmetry Protected Topological (SPT) Phases. Our description of these phases is via the recent cobordism proposal for their classification. In particular, the behavior of these systems is determined by the geometry of Stiefel-Whitney classes. We discuss electric and magnetic operators defined by these classes, and new types of Wilson lines and surfaces that sit on their boundary. The lines desc…
It is possible to describe fermionic phases of matter and spin-topological field theories in 2+1d in terms of bosonic "shadow" theories, which are obtained from the original theory by "gauging fermionic parity". The fermionic/spin theories are recovered from their shadow by a process of fermionic anyon condensation: gauging a one-form symmetry generated by quasi-particles with fermionic statistics. We apply the formalism to theories which admit gapped boundary conditions. We obtain Turaev-Viro-like and Levin-Wen-like constructions of fermionic phases of matter. We describe the group structure …
We present a coupled-wire construction of a model with chiral fracton topological order. The model combines the known construction of $ν=1/m$ Laughlin fractional quantum Hall states with a planar p-string condensation mechanism. The bulk of the model supports gapped immobile fracton excitations that generate a hierarchy of mobile composite excitations. Open boundaries of the model are chiral and gapless, and can be used to demonstrate a fractional quantized Hall conductance where fracton composites act as charge carriers in the bulk. The planar p-string mechanism used to construct and analyze …
The existence of quantum non-liquid states and fracton orders, both gapped and gapless states, challenges our understanding of phases of entangled matter. We generalize the cellular topological states to liquid or non-liquid cellular states. We propose a mechanism to construct more general non-abelian states by gluing gauge-symmetry-breaking vs gauge-symmetry-extension interfaces as extended defects in a cellular network, including defects of higher-symmetries, in any dimension. Our approach also naturally incorporates the anyonic particle/string condensations and composite string (related to …
Strong, electromagnetic, and weak forces were unified in the Standard Model (SM) with spontaneous gauge symmetry breaking. These forces were further conjectured to be unified in a simple Lie group gauge interaction in the Grand Unification (GUT). In this work, we propose a theory beyond the SM and GUT by adding new gapped Topological Phase Sectors consistent with the nonperturbative global anomaly cancellation and cobordism constraints (especially from the baryon minus lepton number ${\bf B}-{\bf L}$, the electroweak hypercharge $Y$, and the mixed gauge-gravitational anomaly). Gapped Topologic…
We consider the spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain with alternating spin exchange %on even and odd sites in the presence of additional modulation of exchange on odd bonds with period three. We study the ground state magnetic phase diagram of this hexamer spin chain in the limit of very strong antiferromagnetic (AF) exchange on odd bonds using the numerical Lanczos method and bosonization approach. In the limit of strong magnetic field commensurate with the dominating AF exchange, the model is mapped onto an effective $XXZ$ Heisenberg chain in the presence of uniform and spatially modulated fields, whic…
String-net models allow us to systematically construct and classify 2+1D topologically ordered states which can have gapped boundaries. We can use a simple ideal string-net wavefunction, which is described by a set of F-matrices [or more precisely, a unitary fusion category (UFC)], to study all the universal properties of such a topological order. In this paper, we describe a finite computational method -- Q-algebra approach, that allows us to compute the non-Abelian statistics of the topological excitations [or more precisely, the unitary modular tensor category (UMTC)], from the string-net w…
We introduce the concept of boundary degeneracy of topologically ordered states on a compact orientable spatial manifold with boundaries, and emphasize that the boundary degeneracy provides richer information than the bulk degeneracy. Beyond the bulk-edge correspondence, we find the ground state degeneracy of the fully gapped edge modes depends on boundary gapping conditions. By associating different types of boundary gapping conditions as different ways of particle or quasiparticle condensations on the boundary, we develop an analytic theory of gapped boundaries. By Chern-Simons theory, this …
Supersymmetric valence bond solid models are extensions of the VBS model, a paradigmatic model of `solvable' gapped quantum antiferromagnets, to the case with doped fermionic holes. In this paper, we present a detailed analysis of physical properties of the models. For systematic studies, a supersymmetric version of the matrix product formalism is developed. On 1D chains, we exactly evaluate the hole-doping behavior of various physical quantities, such as the spin/charge excitation spectrum, superconducting order parameter. A generalized hidden order is proposed, and the corresponding string n…
Two gapped quantum ground states in the same phase are connected by an adiabatic evolution which gives rise to a local unitary transformation that maps between the states. On the other hand, gapped ground states remain within the same phase under local unitary transformations. Therefore, local unitary transformations define an equivalence relation and the equivalence classes are the universality classes that define the different phases for gapped quantum systems. Since local unitary transformations can remove local entanglement, the above equivalence/universality classes correspond to pattern …
We derive the dominant contribution to the large-distance decay of correlation functions for a spin chain model that exhibits both Haldane and Neel phases in its ground state phase diagram. The analytic results are obtained by means of an approximate mapping between a spin-1 anisotropic Hamiltonian onto a fermionic model of noninteracting Bogolioubov quasiparticles related in turn to the XY spin-1/2 chain in a transverse field. This approach allows us to express the spin-1 string operators in terms of fermionic operators so that the dominant contribution to the string correlators at large dist…
We compute the entanglement entropy in a 2+1 dimensional topological order in the presence of gapped boundaries. Specifically, we consider entanglement cuts that cut through the boundaries. We argue that based on general considerations of the bulk-boundary correspondence, the "twisted characters" feature in the Renyi entropy, and the topological entanglement entropy is controlled by a "half-linking number" in direct analogy to the role played by the S-modular matrix in the absence of boundaries. We also construct a class of boundary states based on the half-linking numbers that provides a "clo…
We investigate the ground state properties of a newly discovered phase of one dimensional lattice bosons with extended interactions (see E. G. Dalla Torre et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{97}, 260401 (2006)). The new phase, termed the Haldane Insulator (HI) in analogy with the gapped phase of spin-1 chains, is characterized by a non local order parameter, which can only be written as an infinite string in terms of the bosonic densities. We show that the string order can nevertheless be probed with physical fields that couple locally, via the effect those fields have on the quantum phase transi…
We characterize the Mott insulator and Luther-Emery phases of the 1D Hubbard model through correlators that measure the parity of spin and charge strings along the chain. These non-local quantities order in the corresponding gapped phases and vanish at the critical point $U_c=0$. The Mott insulator consists of bound doublon-holon pairs, which in the Luther-Emery phase turn into electron pairs with opposite spins, both unbinding at $U_c$. The behavior of the parity correlators can be captured by an effective free spinless fermion model.
We ask which topological phases can and cannot be realized by exactly soluble string-net models. We answer this question for the simplest class of topological phases, namely those with abelian braiding statistics. Specifically, we find that an abelian topological phase can be realized by a string-net model if and only if (i) it has a vanishing thermal Hall conductance and (ii) it has at least one Lagrangian subgroup --- a subset of quasiparticles with particular topological properties. Equivalently, we find that an abelian topological phase is realizable if and only if it supports a gapped edg…
Dimerized antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 ladders are known to exhibit a quantum critical phase transition in the ground state, the existence or absence of which is dependent on the dimerization pattern of the ladder. The gapped phases cannot be distinguished by the conventional Landau long-range order parameter. However, they possess a non-local (hidden) string order parameter, which is non-zero in one phase and vanishes in the other. We use an exact diagonalization technique to calculate ground state energies, energy gaps and string order parameters of dimerized two- and three-leg Heisenberg ladd…
Using Density-Matrix Renormalization Group, we investigate the general phase diagram of the frustrated two-leg ladder with Heisenberg interactions along legs, rungs and diagonals. We confirm that all antiferromagnetic gapped states belong to the same universality class as the Haldane phase. In a three-dimensional phase diagram, we determine a continuous surface with singularities in the string-order parameter or its first derivative, corresponding to a transition between two Haldane phases with different topological order. Some parts of this transition surface are critical with zero gap and va…
Motivated by the prediction of fractonic topological defects in a quantum crystal, we utilize a reformulated elasticity duality to derive a description of a fracton phase in terms of coupled vector U(1) gauge theories. The fracton order and restricted mobility emerge as a result of an unusual Gauss law where electric field lines of one gauge field act as sources of charge for others. At low energies this vector gauge theory reduces to the previously studied fractonic symmetric tensor gauge theory. We construct the corresponding lattice model and a number of generalizations, which realize fract…
We investigate the ground state nature of the transverse field Ising model on the $J_1-J_2$ square lattice at the highly frustrated point $J_2/J_1=0.5$. At zero field, the model has an exponentially large degenerate classical ground state, which can be affected by quantum fluctuations for non-zero field toward a unique quantum ground state. We consider two types of quantum fluctuations, harmonic ones by using linear spin wave theory (LSWT) with single-spin flip excitations above a long range magnetically ordered background and anharmonic fluctuations, by employing a cluster-operator approach (…
We introduce a class of gapped three-dimensional models, dubbed "cage-net fracton models," which host immobile fracton excitations in addition to non-Abelian particles with restricted mobility. Starting from layers of two-dimensional string-net models, whose spectrum includes non-Abelian anyons, we condense extended one-dimensional "flux-strings" built out of point-like excitations. Flux-string condensation generalizes the concept of anyon condensation familiar from conventional topological order and allows us to establish properties of the fracton ordered (equivalently, flux-string condensed)…
A topological phase is a phase of matter which cannot be characterized by a local order parameter. It has been shown that gapped phases in 1D systems can be completely characterized using tools related to projective representations of the symmetry groups. We show how to determine the matrices of these representations in a simple way in order to distinguish between different phases directly. From these matrices we also point out how to derive several different types of non-local order parameters for time reversal, inversion symmetry and $Z_2 \times Z_2$ symmetry, as well as some more general ca…
We study lattice constructions of gapped fermionic phases of matter. We show that the construction of fermionic Symmetry Protected Topological orders by Gu and Wen has a hidden dependence on a discrete spin structure on the Euclidean space-time. The spin structure is needed to resolve ambiguities which are otherwise present. An identical ambiguity is shown to arise in the fermionic analog of the string-net construction of 2D topological orders. We argue that the need for a spin structure is a general feature of lattice models with local fermionic degrees of freedom and is a lattice analog of t…
It is a great discovery in physics of the twentieth century that the elementary particles in Nature are dictated by gauge forces, characterized by a nonintegrable phase factor that an elementary particle of charge $q$ acquires from A to B points: $$P \exp\left(i\frac{q}{\hbar c} \int_A^B A_μdx^μ\right)$$ where $A_μ$ is the gauge potential and $P$ stands for path ordering. In a many-body system of strongly correlated electrons, if the so-called Mott gap is opened up by interaction, the corresponding Hilbert space will be fundamentally changed. A novel nonintegrable phase factor known as phase-s…
We consider a weakly coupled gauge theory where charged particles all have large gaps (ie no Higgs condensation to break the gauge "symmetry") and the field strength fluctuates only weakly. We ask what kind of topological terms can be added to the Lagrangian of such a weakly coupled gauge theory. In this paper, we systematically construct quantized topological terms which are generalization of the Chern-Simons terms and $F\wedge F$ terms, in space-time dimensions $d$ and for any gauge groups (continuous or discrete), using each element of the topological cohomology classes $H^{d+1}(BG,\Z)$ on …
