The second law of thermodynamics points to the existence of an `arrow of time', along which entropy only increases. This arises despite the time-reversal symmetry (TRS) of the microscopic laws of nature. Within quantum theory, TRS underpins many interesting phenomena, most notably topological insulators and the Haldane phase of quantum magnets. Here, we demonstrate that such TRS-protected effects are fundamentally unstable against coupling to an environment. Irrespective of the microscopic symmetries, interactions between a quantum system and its surroundings facilitate processes which would be forbidden by TRS in an isolated system. This leads not only to entanglement entropy production and the emergence of macroscopic irreversibility, but also to the demise of TRS-protected phenomena, including those associated with certain symmetry-protected topological phases. Our results highlight the enigmatic nature of TRS in quantum mechanics, and elucidate potential challenges in utilising topological systems for quantum technologies.
Anfuso and Rosch [Phys. Rev. B 75, 144420 (2007)] showed that the "topological" Haldane phase in a fermionic spin-1/2 ladder can be continuously deformed into a "trivial" phase without explicitly breaking symmetries when local charge fluctuations are taken into account. Within the framework of symmetry protected topological phases, we revisit the model and demonstrate how the Haldane phase can be adiabatically connected to a trivial phase due to charge fluctuations. Furthermore, we show that the Haldane phase remains stable as long as the system is symmetric under particular reflection symmetr…
Symmetry protected topological phase is one type of nontrivial quantum disordered many-body state of matter. In this work we study one class of symmetry protected topological phases in two dimensional space, with both PSU(N) and time reversal symmetry. These states can be described by a principal chiral model with a topological Theta-term. As long as the time-reversal symmetry and PSU(N) symmetry are both preserved, the 1+1 dimensional boundary of this system must be either gapless or degenerate. We will also construct a wave function of a spin-1 system on the honeycomb lattice, which is a can…
Anderson's localization on the edge of two dimensional time reversal (TR) topological insulator (TI) is studied. For the non-interacting case the topological protection acts accordingly to the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ classification, leading to conducting and insulating phases for odd and even fillings respectively. In the presence of repulsive interaction the phase diagram is notably changed. We show that for sufficiently strong values of the interaction the zero temperature fixed point of the TI is conducting, including the case of even fillings. We compute the boundaries of the conducting phase for v…
Symmetry-protected topological edge modes are one of the most remarkable phenomena in topological physics. Here, we formulate and quantitatively examine the effect of a quantum bath on these topological edge modes. Using the density matrix renormalization group method, we study the ground state of a composite system of spin-1 quantum chain, where the system and the bath degrees of freedom are treated on the same footing. We focus on the dependence of these edge modes on the global/partial symmetries of system-bath coupling and on the features of the quantum bath. It is shown that the time-reve…
We present a series of models of three-dimensional rotation-symmetric fragile topological insulators in class AI (time-reversal symmetric and spin-orbit-free systems), which have gapless surface states protected by time-reversal ($T$) and $n$-fold rotation ($C_n$) symmetries ($n=2,4,6$). Our models are generalizations of Fu's model of a spinless topological crystalline insulator, in which orbital degrees of freedom play the role of pseudo-spins. We consider minimal surface Hamiltonian with $C_n$ symmetry in class AI and discuss possible symmetry-protected gapless surface states, i.e., a quadra…
The gapless surface Dirac cone of time reversal invariant topological insulators is protected by time reversal symmetry due to the Kramers' theorem. Spin degree of freedom is usually required since Kramers' theorem only guarantees double degeneracy for spinful fermions, but not for spinless fermions. In this paper, we present an antiferromagnetic spinless model, which breaks time reversal symmetry. Similar to time reversal invariant topological insulators, this model possesses a topologically non-trivial phase with a single surface Dirac cone, which is protected by the combination of time reve…
Intrinsic and symmetry protected topological states have attracted lots of interest in condensed matter physics recently. In particular, time reversal symmetry protected fermion topological insulators have been theoretically predicted and experimentally verified. However despite considerable experimental and theoretical works, definitive evidence for time reversal invariant topological superconductivity is still lacking. Here we propose that upon electron doping the hydrogenated single bilayer Bi, namely BiH, will exhibit time reversal invariant topological superconductivity. If confirmed expe…
Universal driving protocol for symmetry-protected Floquet topological phasesWe propose a universal driving protocol for the realization of symmetry-protected topological phases in $2+1$ dimensional Floquet systems. Our proposal is based on the theoretical analysis of the possible symmetries of a square lattice model with pairwise nearest-neighbor coupling terms. Among the eight possible symmetry operators we identify the two relevant choices for topological phases with either time-reversal, chiral, or particle-hole symmetry. From the corresponding symmetry conditions on the protocol parameters…
Three-dimensional topological (crystalline) insulators are materials with an insulating bulk, but conducting surface states which are topologically protected by time-reversal (or spatial) symmetries. Here, we extend the notion of three-dimensional topological insulators to systems that host no gapless surface states, but exhibit topologically protected gapless hinge states. Their topological character is protected by spatio-temporal symmetries, of which we present two cases: (1) Chiral higher-order topological insulators protected by the combination of time-reversal and a four-fold rotation sy…
Despite recent extensive studies of the non-Hermitian topology, understanding interaction effects is left as a crucial question. In this paper, we address interaction effects on exceptional points which are protected by the non-trivial point-gap topology unique to non-Hermitian systems. Our analysis in a two-dimensional parameter space elucidates the existence of exceptional points and symmetry-protected exceptional rings fragile against interactions; they are topologically protected only in non-interacting cases. This fragility of exceptional points and symmetry-protected exceptional rings ar…
Fusion category symmetries are finite symmetries in 1+1 dimensions described by unitary fusion categories. We classify 1+1d time-reversal invariant bosonic symmetry protected topological (SPT) phases with fusion category symmetry by using topological field theories. We first formulate two-dimensional unoriented topological field theories whose symmetry splits into time-reversal symmetry and fusion category symmetry. We then solve them to show that SPT phases are classified by equivalence classes of quintuples $(Z, M, i, s, ϕ)$ where $(Z, M, i)$ is a fiber functor, $s$ is a sign, and $ϕ$ is the…
Kondo insulators are strongly correlated system in which a clean insulating gap emerges only at very low temperature due to many-body effects involving localized $f$-electrons. However, certain Kondo insulators, like SmB$_6$ and Ce${_3}$Bi${_4}$Pt${_3}$, display metallic behaviors at extremely low temperatures, that have defied current understanding. Recent advances in topological effects in materials has raised the attention on the protected surface states in these "topological Kondo insulators" as a potential resolution to some of the puzzling behaviors. Here we resolve these puzzles via a d…
We study the quench dynamics of a topological $p$-wave superfluid with two competing order parameters, $Δ_\pm(t)$. When the system is prepared in the $p+ip$ ground state and the interaction strength is quenched, only $Δ_+(t)$ is nonzero. However, we show that fluctuations in the initial conditions result in the growth of $Δ_-(t)$ and chaotic oscillations of both order parameters. We term this behavior phase III'. In addition, there are two other types of late time dynamics -- phase I where both order parameters decay to zero and phase II where $Δ_+(t)$ asymptotes to a nonzero constant while $Δ…
We study the stability of topological crystalline superconductors in the symmetry class DIIIR and in two-dimensional space when perturbed by quartic contact interactions. It is known that no less than eight copies of helical pairs of Majorana edge modes can be gapped out by an appropriate interaction without spontaneously breaking any one of the protecting symmetries. Hence, the noninteracting classification $\mathbb{Z}$ reduces to $\mathbb{Z}^{\,}_{8}$ when these interactions are present. It is also known that the stability when there are less than eight modes can be understood in terms of th…
We study different phases of the one-dimensional bond-alternating spin-$1/2$ Heisenberg model by using the symmetry fractionalization mechanism. We employ the infinite matrix-product state representation of the ground state (through the infinite-size density matrix renormalization group algorithm) to obtain inequivalent projective representations of the (unbroken) symmetry groups of the model, which are used to identify the different phases. We find that the model exhibits trivial as well as symmetry-protected topological phases. The symmetry-protected topological phases are Haldane phases on …
In free fermion systems with given symmetry and dimension, the possible topological phases are labeled by elements of only three types of Abelian groups, Z_1, Z_2, or Z. For example non-interacting 1D fermionic superconducting phases with S_z spin rotation and time-reversal symmetries are classified by Z. We show that with weak interactions, this classification reduces to Z_4. Using group cohomology, one can additionally show that there are only four distinct phases for such 1D superconductors even with strong interactions. Comparing their projective representations, we find all these four sym…
Symmetry protected topological (SPT) phases are gapped short-range-entangled quantum phases with a symmetry G. They can all be smoothly connected to the same trivial product state if we break the symmetry. The Haldane phase of spin-1 chain is the first example of SPT phase which is protected by SO(3) spin rotation symmetry. The topological insulator is another exam- ple of SPT phase which is protected by U(1) and time reversal symmetries. It has been shown that free fermion SPT phases can be systematically described by the K-theory. In this paper, we show that interacting bosonic SPT phases ca…
Kramers' degeneracy theorem underpins many interesting effects in quantum systems with time-reversal symmetry. We show that the generator of dynamics for Markovian open fermionic systems can exhibit an analogous degeneracy, protected by a combination of time-reversal symmetry and the microreversibility (detailed balance) property of systems at thermal equilibrium -- the degeneracy is lifted if either condition is not met. We provide simple examples of this phenomenon and show that the degeneracy is reflected in the single-particle Green's functions. Furthermore, we show that certain experiment…
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…
Quantum anomalies, breakdown of classical symmetries by quantum effects, provide a sharp definition of symmetry protected topological phases. In particular, they can diagnose interaction effects on the non-interacting classification of fermionic symmetry protected topological phases. In this paper, we identify quantum anomalies in two kinds of (3+1)-dimensional fermionic symmetry protected topological phases: (i) topological insulators protected by CP (charge conjugation $\times$ reflection) and electromagnetic $\mathrm{U}(1)$ symmetries, and (ii) topological superconductors protected by refle…
We study the boundary Majorana modes for the single component p-wave weak topological superconductors or superfluids, which form zero energy flat bands protected by time-reversal symmetry in the orbital channel. However, due to the divergence of density of states, the band flatness of the edge Majorana modes is unstable under spontaneously generated spatial variations of Cooper pairing phases. Staggered current loops appear near the boundary and thus time-reversal symmetry is spontaneously broken in the orbital channel. This effect can appear in both condensed matter and ultra-cold atom system…
We make a systematic study of symmetry-protected topological gapped phases of quantum spin chains in the presence of the frieze space groups in one dimension using matrix product states. Here, the spatial symmetries of the one-dimensional lattice are considered together with an additional 'vertical reflection', which we take to be an on-site $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry. We identify seventeen distinct non-trivial phases, define canonical forms, and compare the topological indices obtained from the MPS analysis with the group cohomological predictions. We furthermore construct explicit renormalizati…
We define and compute many-body topological invariants of interacting fermionic symmetry-protected topological phases, protected by an orientation-reversing symmetry, such as time-reversal or reflection symmetry. The topological invariants are given by partition functions obtained by a path integral on unoriented spacetime which, as we show, can be computed for a given ground state wave function by considering a non-local operation, "partial" reflection or transpose. As an application of our scheme, we study the $\mathbb{Z}_8$ and $\mathbb{Z}_{16}$ classification of topological superconductors…
We present systematic constructions of tensor-network wavefunctions for bosonic symmetry protected topological (SPT) phases respecting both onsite and spatial symmetries. From the classification point of view, our results show that in spatial dimensions $d=1,2,3$, the cohomological bosonic SPT phases protected by a general symmetry group $SG$ involving onsite and spatial symmetries are classified by the cohomology group $H^{d+1}(SG,U(1))$, in which both the time-reversal symmetry and mirror reflection symmetries should be treated as anti-unitary operations. In addition, for every SPT phase pro…
Strong interactions can give rise to new fermionic symmetry protected topological phases which have no analogs in free fermion systems. As an example, we have systematically studied a spinless fermion model with $U(1)$ charge conservation and time reversal symmetry on a three-leg ladder using density-matrix renormalization group. In the non-interacting limit, there are no topological phases. Turning on interactions, we found two gapped phases. One is trivial and is adiabatically connected to a band insulator, while another one is a nontrivial symmetry protected topological phase resulting from…
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…
We explore the 32 crystallographic point groups and identify topological phases of matter with robust surface modes. For n =3,4 and 6 of the C_{nv} groups, we find the first-known 3D topological insulators without spin-orbit coupling, and with surface modes that are protected only by point groups, i.e., not needing time-reversal symmetry. To describe these C_{nv} systems, we introduce the notions of (a) a halved mirror chirality: an integer invariant which characterizes half-mirror-planes in the 3D Brillouin zone, and (b) a bent Chern number: the traditional TKNN invariant generalized to bent …
We demonstrate the existence of an insulating phase in the three-legged Hubbard ladder at two-thirds filling. In this phase chargons are bound because the physics within a unit cell favors the formation of triplets. The resultant moments lead to a ground state in the Haldane phase, a symmetry protected topological state of matter. In this purely fermionic model, reflection is protecting but time reversal and dihedral symmetries are not, in contrast to spin models.
Symmetry protected topological (SPT) phases are gapped quantum phases with a certain symmetry, which can all be smoothly connected to the same trivial product state if we break the symmetry. For non-interacting fermion systems with time reversal (T), charge conjugation (C), and/or U(1) (N) symmetries, the total symmetry group can depend on the relations between those symmetry operations, such as T N T^{-1}= N or T N T^{-1}= -N. As a result, the SPT phases of those fermion systems with different symmetry groups have different classifications. In this paper, we use Kitaev's K-theory approach to …
We generalize Laughlin's flux insertion argument, originally discussed in the context of the quantum Hall effect, to topological phases protected by non-on-site unitary symmetries, in particular by parity symmetry or parity symmetry combined with an on-site unitary symmetry. As a model, we discuss fermionic or bosonic systems in two spatial dimensions with CP symmetry, which are, by the CPT theorem, related to time-reversal symmetric topological insulators (e.g., the quantum spin Hall effect). In particular, we develop the stability/instability (or "gappability"/"ingappablity") criteria for no…
We study the Josephson junction mediated by the quantum spin Hall edge states and show that electron-electron interactions lead to a dissipationless fractional Josephson effect in the presence of time-reversal symmetry. Surprisingly, the periodicity is $8π$, corresponding to a Josephson frequency $eV/2\hbar$. We estimate the magnitude of interaction induced many-body level splitting responsible for this effect and argue that it can be measured using tunneling spectroscopy. For strong interactions we show that the Josephson effect is associated with the weak tunneling of charge $e/2$ quasiparti…
We introduce a novel class of interaction-enabled topological crystalline insulators in two- and three-dimensional electronic systems, which we call "topological crystalline magnet." It is protected by the product of the time-reversal symmetry $\mathcal{T}$ and a mirror symmetry or a rotation symmetry $\mathcal{R}$. A topological crystalline magnet exhibits two intriguing features: (i) it cannot be adiabatically connected to any Slater insulator and (ii) the edge state is robust against coupling electrons to the edge. These features are protected by the anomalous symmetry transformation proper…
Topological phases can not only be protected by internal symmetries (e.g., time-reversal symmetry), but also by crystalline symmetries, such as reflection or rotation symmetry. Recently a complete topological classification of reflection symmetric insulators, superconductors, nodal semimetals, and nodal superconductors has been established. In this article, after a brief review of the classification of reflection-symmetry-protected semimetals and nodal superconductors, we discuss an example of a three-dimensional topological Dirac semimetal, which exhibits time-reversal symmetry as well as ref…
We consider a one-dimensional, time-reversal-invariant system with attractive interactions and spin-orbit coupling. Such a system is gapless due to the strong quantum fluctuations of the superconducting order parameter. However, we show that a sharply defined topological phase with protected, exponentially localized edge states exists. If one of the spin components is conserved, the protection of the edge modes can be understood as a consequence of the presence of a spin gap. In the more general case, the localization of the edge states arises from a gap to single particle excitations in the b…
We study fourfold rotation invariant gapped topological systems with time-reversal symmetry in two and three dimensions ($d=2,3$). We show that in both cases nontrivial topology is manifested by the presence of the $(d-2)$-dimensional edge states, existing at a point in 2D or along a line in 3D. For fermion systems without interaction, the bulk topological invariants are given in terms of the Wannier centers of filled bands, and can be readily calculated using a Fu-Kane-like formula when inversion symmetry is also present. The theory is extended to strongly interacting systems through explicit…
We show that chiral (nearly) flat band superconductivity can develop and host novel Majorana fermions at a time-reversal pair of symmetry-protected three-band crossing points. Based on symmetry analysis, mean-field study, and superfluid stiffness calculation, we determine and analyze the irreducible pairing channels with flat band pairings in the low-energy spin-$1$ fermion theory. Flat band pairing can enhance superconductivity dramatically, where the critical temperature scales linearly in the interaction strength. While fully gapped flat band pairing states develop in the single-component p…
By performing large-scale density-matrix renormalization group simulations, we investigate a one-dimensional correlated bosonic lattice model with a synthetic spin-orbit coupling realized in recent experiments. In the insulating regime, this model exhibits a symmetry-protected topological phase. This symmetry-protected topological phase is stabilized by time-reversal symmetry and it is identified as a Haldane phase. We confirm our conclusions further by analyzing the entanglement spectrum. In addition, we find four conventional phases: a Mott insulating phase with no long range order, a ferrom…
The search for new realization of topologically protected edge states is an active area of research. We show that a tilt boundary in gated multi-layer graphene supports topologically protected gapless kink states, associated with quantum valley Hall insulator (QVH). We investigate such kink states from two perspectives: the microscopic perspective of a tight-binding model and an ab-initio calculation on bilayer, and the perspective of symmetry protected topological (SPT) states for general multi-layer. We show that a AB-BA bilayer tilt boundary supports gapless kink states that are undeterred …
Short-range entangled topological phases of matter are closely connected to Topological Quantum Field Theory. We use this connection to classify bosonic Symmetry Protected Topological Phases in low dimensions, including the case when the symmetry involves time-reversal. To accomplish this, we generalize Turaev's description of equivariant TQFT to the unoriented case. We show that invertible unoriented equivariant TQFTs in one or less spatial dimensions are classified by twisted group cohomology, in agreement with the group cohomology proposal of Chen, Gu, Liu and Wen. We also show that inverti…
It has been proposed recently that interacting Symmetry Protected Topological (SPT) phases can be classified using cobordism theory. We test this proposal in the case of fermionic SPT phases with Z/2 symmetry, where Z/2 is either time-reversal or an internal symmetry. We find that cobordism classification correctly describes all known fermionic SPT phases in space dimension less than or equal to 3 and also predicts that all such phases can be realized by free fermions. In higher dimensions we predict the existence of inherently interacting fermionic SPT phases.
A 3D fermionic topological insulator has a gapless Dirac surface state protected by time-reversal symmetry and charge conservation symmetry. The surface state can be gapped by introducing ferromagnetism to break time-reversal symmetry, introducing superconductivity to break charge conservation, or entering a topological phase. In this paper, we construct a minimal gapped topological phase that preserves both time-reversal and charge conservation symmetries and supports Ising-type non-Abelian anyons. This phase can be understood heuristically as emerging from a surface s-wave superconducting st…
Line nodes in the superconducting gap are known to be a source of Majorana flat bands (MFBs) in time-reversal-invariant superconductors (SCs). Here, we extend this relation to all symmetry-protected line nodes where an additional constraint arising from a symmetry of the crystal destabilizes or hides the existence of MFBs. By establishing a one-to-one correspondence between group theoretical and topological classifications, we are able to classify the possible line-node-induced MFBs, including cases with (magnetic) non-symmorphic space groups. Our theoretical analysis reveals a new type of MFB…
Due to time-reversal symmetry (TRS), two dimensional topological insulators support counter-propagating helical edge modes. Here we show that, unlike the infinitely sharp edge potential utilized in traditional calculations, an experimentally more realistic smooth edge potential gives rise to edge reconstruction and, consequently, spontaneous TRS breaking. Such edge reconstruction may lead to breaking of the expected perfect conductance quantization, to a finite Hall resistance at zero magnetic field, and to a likely spin current. This calculation underpins the fragility of the topological prot…
The fermionic Shastry-Sutherland model has a rich phase diagram, including phases with massless Dirac fermions, a quadratic band crossing point, and a pseudospin-1 Weyl fermion. Berry phases defined by the one-dimensional momentum as a parameter are quantized into 0 or pi due to the inversion symmetry combined with the time reversal, or existence of the glide plane, which also protects the massless Dirac cones with continuous parameters. This is the symmetry protected Z2 quantization. We have further demonstrated the Z2 Berry phases generically determine the existence of edge states in various…
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…
We discuss an isomorphism between the possible anomalies of $(d+1)$-dimensional quantum field theories with $\mathbb{Z}_{2}$ unitary global symmetry, and those of $d$-dimensional quantum field theories with time-reversal symmetry $\mathsf{T}$. This correspondence is an instance of symmetry defect decoration. The worldvolume of a $\mathbb{Z}_{2}$ symmetry defect is naturally invariant under $\mathsf{T},$ and bulk $\mathbb{Z}_{2}$ anomalies descend to $\mathsf{T}$ anomalies on these defects. We illustrate this correspondence in detail for $(1+1)d$ bosonic systems where the bulk $\mathbb{Z}_{2}$ …
Twisting symmetries provides an efficient method to diagnose symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases. In this paper, edge theories of (2+1)-dimensional topological phases protected by reflection as well as other symmetries are studied by twisting reflection symmetry, which effectively puts the edge theories on an unoriented spacetime, such as the Klein bottle. A key technical step taken in this paper is the use of the so-called cross-cap states, which encode entirely the unoriented nature of spacetime, and can be obtained by rearranging the spacetime geometry and exchanging the role of spa…
We consider a model for a one-dimensional quantum wire with Rashba spin-orbit coupling and repulsive interactions, proximity coupled to a conventional s-wave superconductor. Using a combination of Hartree-Fock and density matrix renormalization group calculations, we show that for sufficiently strong interactions in the wire, a time-reversal invariant topological superconducting phase can be stabilized in the absence of an external magnetic field. This phase supports two zero-energy Majorana bound states at each end, which are protected by time-reversal symmetry. The mechanism for the formatio…
Three-dimensional line-nodal superconductors exhibit nontrivial topology, which is protected by the time-reversal symmetry. Here we investigate four types of short-range interaction between the gapless line-nodal fermionic quasiparticles by carrying renormalization group analysis. We find that such interactions can induce the dynamical breaking of time-reversal symmetry, which alters the topology and might lead to six possible distinct superconducting states, distinguished by the group representations. After computing the susceptibilities for all the possible phase-transition instabilities, we…
Symmetry protected topological (SPT) phases with unusual edge excitations can emerge in strongly interacting bosonic systems and are classified in terms of the cohomology of their symmetry groups. Here we provide a physical picture that leads to an intuitive understanding and wavefunctions for several SPT phases in d=1,2,3 dimensions. We consider symmetries which include a Z_2 subgroup, that allows us to define domain walls. While the usual disordered phase is obtained by proliferating domain walls, we show that SPT phases are realized when these proliferated domain walls are `decorated', i.e.…
We study possible quantum $U(1)$ spin liquids in three dimensions with time-reversal symmetry. We find a total of 7 families of such $U(1)$ spin liquids, distinguished by the properties of their emergent electric/magnetic charges. We show how these spin liquids are related to each other. Two of these classes admit nontrivial protected surface states which we describe. We show how to access all of the 7 spin liquids through slave particle (parton) constructions. We also provide intuitive loop gas descriptions of their ground state wave functions. One of these phases is the `topological Mott ins…
Recently, it has been shown that two-dimensional bosonic symmetry-protected topological(SPT) phases with on-site unitary symmetry $G$ can be completely classified by the group cohomology class $H^3(G, \mathrm{U}(1))$. Later, group super-cohomology class was proposed as a partial classification for SPT phases of interacting fermions. In this work, we revisit this problem based on the mathematical framework of $G$-extension of unitary braided tensor category(UBTC) theory. We first reproduce the partial classifications given by group super-cohomology, then we show that with an additional $H^1(G, …
We present a fully many-body formulation of topological invariants for various topological phases of fermions protected by antiunitary symmetry, which does not refer to single particle wave functions. For example, we construct the many-body $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological invariant for time-reversal symmetric topological insulators in two spatial dimensions, which is a many-body counterpart of the Kane-Mele $\mathbb{Z}_2$ invariant written in terms of single-particle Bloch wave functions. We show that an important ingredient for the construction of the many-body topological invariants is a fermioni…
We study the two-dimensional (2D) Hubbard model using exact diagonalization for spin-1/2 fermions on the triangular and honeycomb lattices decorated with a single hexagon per site. In certain parameter ranges, the Hubbard model maps to a quantum compass model on those lattices. On the triangular lattice, the compass model exhibits collinear stripe antiferromagnetism, implying $d$-density wave charge order in the original Hubbard model. On the honeycomb lattice, the compass model has a unique, quantum disordered ground state that transforms nontrivially under lattice reflection. The ground stat…
