In this paper we propose a Hamiltonian approach to gapped topological phases on an open surface with boundary. Our setting is an extension of the Levin-Wen model to a 2d graph on the open surface, whose boundary is part of the graph. We systematically construct a series of boundary Hamiltonians such that each of them, when combined with the usual Levin-Wen bulk Hamiltonian, gives rise to a gapped energy spectrum which is topologically protected; and the corresponding wave functions are robust under changes of the underlying graph that maintain the spatial topology of the system. We derive explicit ground-state wavefunctions of the system and show that the boundary types are classified by Morita-equivalent Frobenius algebras. We also construct boundary quasiparticle creation, measuring and hopping operators. These operators allow us to characterize the boundary quasiparticles by bimodules of Frobenius algebras. Our approach also offers a concrete set of tools for computations. We illustrate our approach by a few examples.
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 …
Gapped domain walls, as topological line defects between 2+1D topologically ordered states, are examined. We provide simple criteria to determine the existence of gapped domain walls, which apply to both Abelian and non-Abelian topological orders. Our criteria also determine which 2+1D topological orders must have gapless edge modes, namely which 1+1D global gravitational anomalies ensure gaplessness. Furthermore, we introduce a new mathematical object, the tunneling matrix $\mathcal W$, whose entries are the fusion-space dimensions $\mathcal W_{ia}$, to label different types of gapped domain …
We present an exactly solvable lattice Hamiltonian to realize gapped boundaries of Kitaev's quantum double models for Dijkgraaf-Witten theories. We classify the elementary excitations on the boundary, and systematically describe the bulk-to-boundary condensation procedure. We also present the parallel algebraic/categorical structure of gapped boundaries.
We propose the concept of fermion condensation in bosonic topological orders in two spatial dimensions. Fermion condensation can be realized as gapped domain walls between bosonic and fermionic topological orders, which are thought of as a real-space phase transitions from bosonic to fermionic topological orders. This generalizes the previous idea of understanding boson condensation as gapped domain walls between bosonic topological orders. We show that generic fermion condensation obeys a Hierarchy Principle by which it can be decomposed into a boson condensation followed by a minimal fermion…
We give a mathematical definition of a gapped domain wall between topological phases and a gapped boundary of a topological phase. We then provide answers to some recent questions studied by Lan, Wang and Wen in condensed matter physics based on works of Davydov, Müger, Nikshych and Ostrik. In particular, we identify their tunneling matrix and a coupling matrix of Rehren, and show that their conjecture does not hold.
A realistic material may possess defects, which often bring the material new properties that have practical applications. The boundary defects of a two-dimensional topologically ordered system are thought of as an alternative way of realizing topological quantum computation. To facilitate the study of such boundary defects, in this paper, we construct an exactly solvable Hamiltonian model of topological orders with gapped boundary junctions, where the boundary defects reside, by placing the Levin-Wen model on a disk, whose gapped boundary is separated into multiple segments by junctions. We fi…
This Letter discusses topological quantum computation with gapped boundaries of two-dimensional topological phases. Systematic methods are presented to encode quantum information topologically using gapped boundaries, and to perform topologically protected operations on this encoding. In particular, we introduce a new and general computational primitive of topological charge measurement and present a symmetry-protected implementation of this primitive. Throughout the Letter, a concrete physical example, the $\mathbb{Z}_3$ toric code ($\mathfrak{D}(\mathbb{Z}_3)$), is discussed. For this exampl…
We present a detailed path integral derivation of the topological response of gapped free fermions, in $2+1$ dimensions, to an external $\text{U}(1)$ Gauge field. The well-known Hall response is obtained by identifying the Chern-Simons term in the effective action with the correct coefficient. We extend the result to $2d+1$ dimensions in which the response is associated to a Chern-Simons term with a coefficient related to a characteristic class coming from topological band theory. We comment on the bulk-to-boundary principle which arises naturally when one considers the theory on a manifold wi…
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…
The standard boundary state of a topological insulator in 3+1 dimensions has gapless charged fermions. We present model systems that reproduce this standard gapless boundary state in one phase, but also have gapped phases with topological order. Our models are weakly coupled and all the dynamics is explicit. We rederive some known boundary states of topological insulators and construct new ones. Consistency with the standard spin/charge relation of condensed matter physics places a nontrivial constraint on models.
We construct a Hamiltonian whose ground state encodes a time-independent emulation of quan- tum teleportation. We calculate properties of the Hamiltonian, using exact diagonalization and a mean-field theory, and argue that it has a gap. The system exhibits an illuminating relationship to the well-known AKLT (Affleck, Lieb, Kennedy and Tasaki) model.
A (deterministic) polynomial-time algorithm is proposed for approximating the ground state of (general) one-dimensional gapped Hamiltonians. Let $ε,n,η$ be the energy gap, the system size, and the desired precision, respectively. Neglecting $ε$-dependent subpolynomial (in $n$) and constant factors, the running time of the algorithm is $n^{O(1)}$ for $η=n^{-O(1)}$.
Computing ground states of local Hamiltonians is a fundamental problem in condensed matter physics. We give the first randomized polynomial-time algorithm for finding ground states of gapped one-dimensional Hamiltonians: it outputs an (inverse-polynomial) approximation, expressed as a matrix product state (MPS) of polynomial bond dimension. The algorithm combines many ingredients, including recently discovered structural features of gapped 1D systems, convex programming, insights from classical algorithms for 1D satisfiability, and new techniques for manipulating and bounding the complexity of…
Whether two boundary conditions of a two-dimensional topological order can be continuously connected without a phase transition in between remains a challenging question. We tackle this challenge by constructing an effective Hamiltonian, describing anyon interaction, that realizes such a continuous deformation. At any point along the deformation, the model remains a fixed point model describing a gapped topological order with gapped boundaries. That the deformation retains the gap is due to the anomaly cancelation between the boundary and bulk. Such anomaly inflow is quantitatively studied usi…
We extend the twisted gauge theory model of topological orders in three spatial dimensions to the case where the three spaces have two dimensional boundaries. We achieve this by systematically constructing the boundary Hamiltonians that are compatible with the bulk Hamoltonian. Given the bulk Hamiltonian defined by a gauge group $G$ and a four-cocycle $ω$ in the fourth cohomology group of $G$ over $U(1)$, a boundary Hamiltonian can be defined by a subgroup $K$ of $G$ and a three-cochain $α$ in the third cochain group of $K$ over $U(1)$. The boundary Hamiltonian to be constructed must be gapped…
Topological phases of matter are usually realized in deconfined phases of gauge theories. In this context, confined phases with strongly fluctuating gauge fields seem to be irrelevant to the physics of topological phases. For example, the low-energy theory of the two-dimensional (2D) toric code model (i.e. the deconfined phase of $\mathbb{Z}_2$ gauge theory) is a $U(1)\times U(1)$ Chern-Simons theory in which gauge charges (i.e., $e$ and $m$ particles) are deconfined and the gauge fields are gapped, while the confined phase is topologically trivial. In this paper, we point out a new route to c…
This paper studies fault-tolerant quantum computation with gapped boundaries. We first introduce gapped boundaries of Kitaev's quantum double models for Dijkgraaf-Witten theories using their Hamiltonian realizations. We classify the elementary excitations on the boundary, and systematically describe the bulk-to-boundary condensation procedure. We also provide a commuting Hamiltonian to realize defects between boundaries in any quantum double model. Next, we present the algebraic/categorical structure of gapped boundaries and boundary defects, which will be used to describe topologically protec…
Defects between gapped boundaries provide a possible physical realization of projective non-abelian braid statistics. A notable example is the projective Majorana/parafermion braid statistics of boundary defects in fractional quantum Hall/topological insulator and superconductor heterostructures. In this paper, we develop general theories to analyze the topological properties and projective braiding of boundary defects of topological phases of matter in two spatial dimensions. We present commuting Hamiltonians to realize defects between gapped boundaries in any $(2+1)D$ untwisted Dijkgraaf-Wit…
We construct the symmetric-gapped surface states of a fractional topological insulator with electromagnetic $θ$-angle $θ_{em} = \fracπ{3}$ and a discrete $\mathbb{Z}_3$ gauge field. They are the proper generalizations of the T-pfaffian state and pfaffian/anti-semion state and feature an extended periodicity compared with their of "integer" topological band insulators counterparts. We demonstrate that the surface states have the correct anomalies associated with time-reversal symmetry and charge conservation.
We propose a way -- universal wave function overlap -- to extract universal topological data from generic ground states of gapped systems in any dimensions. Those extracted topological data should fully characterize the topological orders with gapped or gapless boundary. For non-chiral topological orders in 2+1D, this universal topological data consist of two matrices, $S$ and $T$, which generate a projective representation of $SL(2,\mathbb Z)$ on the degenerate ground state Hilbert space on a torus. For topological orders with gapped boundary in higher dimensions, this data constitutes a proj…
Gapped non-liquid state (also known as fracton state) is a very special gapped quantum state of matter that is characterized by a microscopic cellular structure. Such microscopic cellular structure has a macroscopic effect at arbitrary long distances and cannot be removed by renormalization group flow, which makes gapped non-liquid state beyond the description of topological quantum field theory with a finite number of fields. Using Abelian and non-Abelian topological orders in 2-dimensional (2d) space and the different ways to glue them together via their gapped boundaries, we propose a syste…
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.
Symmetry protected topological (SPT) phases are gapped quantum phases which host symmetry-protected gapless edge excitations. On the other hand, the edge states can be gapped by spontaneously breaking symmetry. We show that topological defects on the symmetry-broken edge cannot proliferate due to their fractional statistics. A gapped symmetric boundary, however, can be achieved between an SPT phase and certain fractionalized phases by condensing the bound state of a topological defect and an anyon. We demonstrate this by two examples in two dimensions: an exactly solvable model for the boundar…
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…
We show that the gapless boundary signatures - namely, chiral/helical hinge modes or localized zero modes - of three-dimensional higher-order topological insulators and superconductors with inversion symmetry can be gapped without symmetry breaking upon the introduction of non-Abelian surface topological order. In each case, the fractionalization pattern that appears on surface is `anomalous' in the sense that it can be made consistent with symmetry only on the surface of a three dimensional higher-order insulator/superconductor. Our results show that the interacting manifestation of higher-or…
We show that boundaries of 3D weak topological insulators can become gapped by strong interactions while preserving all symmetries, leading to Abelian surface topological order. The anomalous nature of the weak topological insulators manifests itself in a non-trivial action of symmetries on the quasiparticles; most strikingly, translations change the anyon types in a manner impossible in strictly 2D systems with the same symmetry. As a further consequence, screw dislocations form non-Abelian defects that trap $\mathbb{Z}_4$ parafermion zero modes.
The 2+1D topological order can be characterized by the mapping-class-group representations for Riemann surfaces of genus-1, genus-2, etc. In this paper, we use those representations to determine the possible gapped boundaries of a 2+1D topological order, as well as the domain walls between two topological orders. We find that mapping-class-group representations for both genus-1 and genus-2 surfaces are needed to determine the gapped domain walls and boundaries. Our systematic theory is based on the fixed-point partition functions for the walls (or the boundaries), which completely characterize…
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…
The conditions for both the stability and the breakdown of the topological classification of gapped ground states of noninteracting fermions, the tenfold way, in the presence of quartic fermion-fermion interactions are given for any dimension of space. This is achieved by encoding the effects of interactions on the boundary gapless modes in terms of boundary dynamical masses. Breakdown of the noninteracting topological classification occurs when the quantum nonlinear sigma models for the boundary dynamical masses favor quantum disordered phases. For the tenfold way, we find that (i) the nonint…
We study generalizations of the Berry phase for quantum lattice systems in arbitrary dimensions. For a smooth family of gapped ground states in d dimensions, we define a closed (d+2)-form on the parameter space which generalizes the curvature of the Berry connection. Its cohomology class is a topological invariant of the family. When the family is equivariant under the action of a compact Lie group G, topological invariants take values in the equivariant cohomology of the parameter space. These invariants unify and generalize the Hall conductance and the Thouless pump. A key role in these cons…
A projective symmetry group (PSG) has been regarded as a classification theory of spin liquids. However, it does not include a symmetry-protected topological order of fermionic spinon excitations, and thus the classification of gapped spin liquids is incomplete. We demonstrate the classification beyond PSG by utilizing the Kitaev model on the squareoctagon lattice, where two gapped spin liquids are distinguished by a topological $Z_2$ invariant. This $Z_2$ invariant can be defined solely by the time-reversal and translation symmetries on condition that the time-reversal symmetry is implemented…
In this work we present some new understanding of topological order, including three main aspects: (1) It was believed that classifying topological orders corresponds to classifying gapped quantum states. We show that such a statement is not precise. We introduce the concept of \emph{gapped quantum liquid} as a special kind of gapped quantum states that can "dissolve" any product states on additional sites. Topologically ordered states actually correspond to gapped quantum liquids with stable ground-state degeneracy. Symmetry-breaking states for on-site symmetry are also gapped quantum liquids…
We show that any short-range Hamiltonian with a gap between the ground and excited states can be written as a sum of local operators, such that the ground state is an approximate eigenvector of each operator separately. We then show that the ground state of any such Hamiltonian is close to a generalized matrix product state. The range of the given operators needed to obtain a good approximation to the ground state is proportional to the square of the logarithm of the system size times a characteristic "factorization length". Applications to many-body quantum simulation are discussed. We also c…
We revisit the role of loop and surface operators as order parameters for gapped phases of four-dimensional gauge theories. We show that in some cases surface operators are confined, and that this fact can be used to distinguish phases which are not distinguished by the Wilson-'t Hooft criterion. The long-distance behavior of loop and surface operators which are neither confined nor screened is controlled by a 4d TQFT. We construct these TQFTs for phases which are characterized by the presence of electrically and/or magnetically charged condensates. Interestingly, the TQFT describing a phase w…
It is well known that the 3D electronic topological insulator (TI) with charge-conservation and time-reversal symmetry cannot have a trivial insulating surface that preserves symmetry. It is often implicitly assumed that if the TI surface preserves both symmetries then it must be gapless. Here we show that it is possible for the TI surface to be both gapped and symmetry-preserving, at the expense of having surface-topological order. In contrast to analogous bosonic topological insulators, this symmetric surface topological order is intrinsically non-Abelian. We show that the surface-topologica…
We characterize several phases of gapped spin systems by local order parameters defined by quantized Berry phases. This characterization is topologically stable against any small perturbation as long as the energy gap remains finite. The models we pick up are $S=1,2$ dimerized Heisenberg chains and S=2 Heisenberg chains with uniaxial single-ion-type anisotropy. Analytically we also evaluate the topological local order parameters for the generalized Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki (AKLT) model. The relation between the present Berry phases and the fractionalization in the integer spin chains are di…
We study gapped boundaries of Abelian type-I fracton systems in three spatial dimensions. Using the X-cube model as our motivating example, we give a conjecture, with partial proof, of the conditions for a boundary to be gapped. In order to state our conjecture, we use a precise definition of fracton braiding and show that bulk braiding of fractons has several features that make it \textit{insufficient} to classify gapped boundaries. Most notable among these is that bulk braiding is sensitive to geometry and is "nonreciprocal," that is, braiding an excitation $a$ around $b$ need not yield the …
The correspondence between the edge theory and the entanglement spectrum is firmly established for the chiral topological phases. We study gapped, topologically ordered, non-chiral states with a conserved $U(1)$ charge and show that the entanglement Hamiltonian contains not only the information about topologically distinct edges such phases may admit, but also which of them will be realized in the presence of symmetry breaking/conserving perturbations. We introduce an exactly solvable, charge conserving lattice model of a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ spin liquid and derive its edge theory and the entangleme…
We construct topological quantum field theories (TQFTs) and commuting projector Hamiltonians for any 1+1d gapped phases with non-anomalous fusion category symmetries, i.e. finite symmetries that admit SPT phases. The construction is based on two-dimensional state sum TQFT whose input datum is an $H$-simple left $H$-comodule algebra, where $H$ is a finite dimensional semisimple Hopf algebra. We show that the actions of fusion category symmetries $\mathcal{C}$ on the boundary conditions of these state sum TQFTs are represented by module categories over $\mathcal{C}$. This agrees with the classif…
We investigate the superconducting gap function of topological superconductor PbTaSe$_2$. Temperature, magnetic field, and three-dimensional (3D) field-angle dependences of the specific heat prove that the superconductivity of PbTaSe$_2$ is fully-gapped, with two isotropic $s$-wave gaps. The pair-breaking effect is probed by systematically increasing non-magnetic disorders through H$^+$-irradiations. The superconducting transition temperature, $T_{\rm{c}}$, is found to be robust against disorders, which suggests that the pairing should be sign-preserved rather than sign-reversed.
We study topological field theory describing gapped phases of gauge theories where the gauge symmetry is partially Higgsed and partially confined. The TQFT can be formulated both in the continuum and on the lattice and generalizes Dijkgraaf-Witten theory by replacing a finite group by a finite 2-group. The basic field in this TQFT is a 2-connection on a principal 2-bundle. We classify topological actions for such theories as well as loop and surface observables. When the topological action is trivial, the TQFT is related to a Dijkgraaf-Witten theory by electric-magnetic duality, but in general…
We generalize the Electric-magnetic (EM) duality in the quantum double (QD) models to the case of topological orders with gapped boundaries. We also map the QD models with boundaries to the Levin-Wen (LW) models with boundaries. To this end, we Fourier transform and rewrite the extended QD model with a finite gauge group $G$ on a trivalent lattice with a boundary. Gapped boundary conditions of the model before the transformation are known to be characterized by the subgroups $K \subseteq G$. We find that after the transformation, the boundary conditions are then characterized by the Frobenius …
We explore a scenario where local interactions form one-dimensional gapped interfaces between a pair of distinct chiral two-dimensional topological states - referred to as phases 1 and 2 - such that each gapped region terminates at a domain wall separating the chiral gapless edge states of these phases. We show that this type of T-junction supports point-like fractionalized excitations obeying parafermion statistics, thus implying that the one-dimensional gapped interface forms an effective topological parafermionic wire possessing a non-trivial ground state degeneracy. The physical properties…
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…
In this work we consider general fermion systems in two spatial dimensions, both with and without charge conservation symmetry, which realize a nontrivial fermionic topological order with only Abelian anyons. We address the question of precisely how these quantum phases differ from their bosonic counterparts, both in terms of their edge physics and in the way one would identify them in numerics. As in previous works, we answer these questions by studying the theory obtained after gauging the global fermion parity symmetry, which turns out to have a special and simple structure. Using this stru…
We study the dynamical spin excitations of the one-dimensional $S=1$ Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chain with single-ion anisotropy by using quantum Monte Carlo simulations and stochastic analytic continuation of imaginary-time correlation function. Using the transverse dynamic spin structure factor, we observe the quantum phase transition with a critical point between the topological Haldane gapped phase and the trivial phase. At the quantum critical point, we find a broad continuum characterized by the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid similar to a $S=1/2$ Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chain. We furth…
We performed systematic spin- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy of TlBi(S1-xSex)2 which undergoes a topological phase transition at x ~ 0.5. In TlBiSe2 (x = 1.0), we revealed a helical spin texture of Dirac-cone surface states with an intrinsic in-plane spin polarization of ~ 0.8. The spin polarization still survives in the gapped surface states at x > 0.5, although it gradually weakens upon approaching x = 0.5 and vanishes in the non-topological phase. No evidence for the out-of-plane spin polarization was found irrespective of x and momentum. The present results unambiguously ind…
Based on the recently established parafermionic matrix product states, we study the classification of one-dimensional gapped phases of parafermions with the time reversal (TR) symmetry satisfying $T^{2}=1$. Without extra symmetry, it has been found that $\mathbb{Z}_{p}$ parafermionic gapped phases can be classified as topological phases, spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) phases, and a trivial phase, which are uniquely labelled by the divisors $n$ of $p$. In the presence of TR symmetry, however, the enriched classification is characterized by three indices $n$, $κ$ and $μ$, where $κ\in \mathb…
We apply symmetric tensor network state (TNS) to study the nearest neighbor spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on Kagome lattice. Our method keeps track of the global and gauge symmetries in TNS update procedure and in tensor renormalization group (TRG) calculation. We also introduce a very sensitive probe for the gap of the ground state -- the modular matrices, which can also determine the topological order if the ground state is gapped. We find that the ground state of Heisenberg model on Kagome lattice is a gapped spin liquid with the $\mathbb{Z}_2$-topological order (or toric code…
