We study several exotic systems, including the X-cube model, on a flat three-torus with a twist in the $xy$-plane. The ground state degeneracy turns out to be a sensitive function of various geometrical parameters. Starting from a lattice, depending on how we take the continuum limit, we find different values of the ground state degeneracy. Yet, there is a natural continuum limit with a well-defined (though infinite) value of that degeneracy. We also uncover a surprising global symmetry in $2+1$ and $3+1$ dimensional systems. It originates from the underlying subsystem symmetry, but the way it is realized depends on the twist. In particular, in a preferred coordinate frame, the modular parameter of the twisted two-torus $τ= τ_1 + i τ_2$ has rational $τ_1 = k / m$. Then, in systems based on $U(1)\times U(1)$ subsystem symmetries, such as momentum and winding symmetries or electric and magnetic symmetries, the new symmetry is a projectively realized $\mathbb{Z}_m\times \mathbb{Z}_m$, which leads to an $m$-fold ground state degeneracy. In systems based on $\mathbb{Z}_N$ symmetries, like the X-cube model, each of these two $\mathbb{Z}_m$ factors is replaced by $\mathbb{Z}_{\gcd(N,m)}$.
In this paper, we explore the interplay between symmetry and fracton order, motivated by the analogous close relationship for topologically ordered systems. Specifically, we consider models with 3D planar subsystem symmetry, and show that these can realize subsystem symmetry protected topological phases with gapless boundary modes. Gauging the planar subsystem symmetry leads to a fracton order in which particles restricted to move along lines exhibit a new type of statistical interaction that is specific to the lattice geometry. We show that both the gapless boundary modes of the ungauged theo…
Following our earlier analyses of nonstandard continuum quantum field theories, we study here gapped systems in 3+1 dimensions, which exhibit fractonic behavior. In particular, we present three dual field theory descriptions of the low-energy physics of the X-cube model. A key aspect of our constructions is the use of discontinuous fields in the continuum field theory. Spacetime is continuous, but the fields are not.
We extend our exploration of nonstandard continuum quantum field theories in 2+1 dimensions to 3+1 dimensions. These theories exhibit exotic global symmetries, a peculiar spectrum of charged states, unusual gauge symmetries, and surprising dualities. Many of the systems we study have a known lattice construction. In particular, one of them is a known gapless fracton model. The novelty here is in their continuum field theory description. In this paper, we focus on models with a global $U(1)$ symmetry and in a followup paper we will study models with a global $\mathbb{Z}_N$ symmetry.
We discuss nonstandard continuum quantum field theories in 2+1 dimensions. They exhibit exotic global symmetries, a subtle spectrum of charged excitations, and dualities similar to dualities of systems in 1+1 dimensions. These continuum models represent the low-energy limits of certain known lattice systems. One key aspect of these continuum field theories is the important role played by discontinuous field configurations. In two companion papers, we will present 3+1-dimensional versions of these systems. In particular, we will discuss continuum quantum field theories of some models of fracton…
In the study of three-dimensional gapped models, two-dimensional gapped states should be considered as a free resource. This is the basic idea underlying the notion of `foliated fracton order' proposed in Phys. Rev. X 8, 031051 (2018). We have found that many of the known type I fracton models, although they appear very different, have the same foliated fracton order, known as `X-cube' order. In this paper, we identify three-dimensional fracton models with different kinds of foliated fracton order. Whereas the X-cube order corresponds to the gauge theory of a simple paramagnet with subsystem p…
We construct a purely fermionic system with spontaneously broken supersymmetry that shares the common feature with a fracton phase of matter. Our model is gapless due to the Nambu-Goldstone mechanism. It shows a ground-state degeneracy with the "Area-law" entropy due to fermionic subsystem symmetries. In the strongly coupled limit, it becomes a variant of the Nicolai model, and the ground-state degeneracy shows the "Volume-law" entropy. Gauging the fermionic subsystem symmetry has an t'Hooft anomaly by itself, but the would-be gauged theory may possess a fermionic defect that is immobile in ce…
We formulate the word-line approach of the field theory of fractons and their symmetries. The distinction between the different models is based on their dispersion relations for the energy. In order to study the sub-system symmetries, we construct the Routhians associated with the particle Lagrangians considered. We also construct the pseudoclassical description of spinning fractons.
There has been a surge of interest in effective non-Lorentzian theories of excitations with restricted mobility, known as fractons. Examples include defects in elastic materials, vortex lattices or spin liquids. In the effective theory novel coordinate-dependent symmetries emerge that shape the properties of fractons. In this review we will discuss these symmetries, cover the effective description of gapless fractons via elastic duality, and discuss their hydrodynamics.
We study models with fracton-like order based on $\mathbb{Z}_2$ lattice gauge theories with subsystem symmetries in $d=2$ and $d=3$ spatial dimensions. The $3d$ model reduces to the $3$-dimensional Toric Code when subsystem symmetry is broken, giving an example of a subsystem symmetry enriched topological phase (SSET). Although not topologically protected, its ground state degeneracy has as leading contribution a term which grows exponentially with the square of the linear size of the system. Also, there are completely mobile gauge charges living along with immobile fractons. Our method shows …
The asymptotic structure of gauge theories describing fracton interactions is analyzed. Two sets of asymptotic conditions are proposed. Both encompass all known solutions, lead to finite charges and resolve the problem of the divergent energy coming from the monopole contribution. While the first set leads to the expected fracton symmetry algebra, including a dipole charge, the second set provides a soft infinite-dimensional extension of it. These soft charges provide evidence of a rich infrared structure for fracton-like theories and provide one corner of a possible fracton infrared triangle.
We study novel three-dimensional gapped quantum phases of matter which support quasiparticles with restricted mobility, including immobile "fracton" excitations. So far, most existing fracton models may be instructively viewed as generalized Abelian lattice gauge theories. Here, by analogy with Dijkgraaf-Witten topological gauge theories, we discover a natural generalization of fracton models, obtained by twisting the gauge symmetries. Introducing generalized gauge transformation operators carrying an extra phase factor depending on local configurations, we construct a plethora of exactly solv…
We study field theories with global dipole symmetries and gauge dipole symmetries. The famous Lifshitz theory is an example of a theory with a global dipole symmetry. We study in detail its 1+1d version with a compact field. When this global symmetry is promoted to a $U(1)$ dipole gauge symmetry, the corresponding gauge field is a tensor gauge field. This theory is known to lead to fractons. In order to resolve various subtleties in the precise meaning of these global or gauge symmetries, we place these 1+1d theories on a lattice and then take the continuum limit. Interestingly, the continuum …
We formulate a fracton-elasticity duality for twisted moiré superlattices, taking into account that they are incommensurate crystals with dissipative phason dynamics. From a dual tensor-gauge formulation, as compared to standard crystals, we identify twice the number of conserved charges that describe topological lattice defects, namely, disclinations and a new type of defect that we dub discompressions. The key implication of these conservation laws is that both glide and climb motions of lattice dislocations are suppressed, indicating that dislocation networks may become exceptionally stable…
Fracton phase of matter host fractionalized topological quasiparticles with restricted mobility. A wide variety of fracton models with abelian excitations had been proposed and extensively studied while the candidates for non-Abelian fracton phases are less explored. In this work, we investigate the effect of twisted defect in abelian fracton models. The twisted defect is launched by introducing a branch cut line hosting anyon condensate. In particular, these twisted defects, which alter different types of quasiparticles, carry projective non-Abelian zero modes. En route, such defects can be e…
We extend recent work on hydrodynamics with global multipolar symmetries -- known as "fracton hydrodynamics" -- to systems in which the multipolar symmetries are gauged. We refer to the latter as "fracton magnetohydrodynamics", in analogy to conventional magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), which governs systems with gauged charge conservation. We show that fracton MHD arises naturally from higher-rank Maxwell's equations and in systems with one-form symmetries obeying certain constraints; while we focus on "minimal" higher-rank generalizations of MHD that realize diffusion, our methods may also be use…
Based on several previous examples, we summarize explicitly the general procedure to gauge models with subsystem symmetries, which are symmetries with generators that have support within a sub-manifold of the system. The gauging process can be applied to any local quantum model on a lattice that is invariant under the subsystem symmetry. We focus primarily on simple 3D paramagnetic states with planar symmetries. For these systems, the gauged theory may exhibit foliated fracton order and we find that the species of symmetry charges in the paramagnet directly determine the resulting foliated fra…
A new representation of the scalar electrodynamics is discovered which gives a more redundant description of electromagnetic theory and suitable to construct an appropriate matter action which contains two global symmetries . The symmetries of the model when localized by gauge principle , provides a co-variant fracton gauge theory.
The emerging study of fractons, a new type of quasi-particle with restricted mobility, has motivated the construction of several classes of interesting continuum quantum field theories with novel properties. One such class consists of foliated field theories which, roughly, are built by coupling together fields supported on the leaves of foliations of spacetime. Another approach, which we refer to as exotic field theory, focuses on constructing Lagrangians consistent with special symmetries (like subsystem symmetries) that are adjacent to fracton physics. A third framework is that of infinite-…
In this work we explore the interplay between global symmetry and the mobility of quasiparticle excitations. We show that fractonic matter naturally appears in a three dimensional U(1) gauge theory, enriched by global U(1) and translational symmetries, via the mechanism of anyonic spin-orbital coupling. We develop a systematic understanding of such symmetry-enforced mobility restrictions in terms of the classification of U(1) gauge theories enriched by U(1) and translational symmetries. We provide a unified construction of these phases by gauging layered symmetry-protected topological phases.
We reformulate known exotic theories (including theories of fractons) on a Euclidean spacetime lattice. We write them using the Villain approach and then we modify them to a convenient range of parameters. The new lattice models are closer to the continuum limit than the original lattice versions. In particular, they exhibit many of the recently found properties of the continuum theories including emergent global symmetries and surprising dualities. Also, these new models provide a clear and rigorous formulation to the continuum models and their singularities. In appendices, we use this approa…
We discuss the procedure for gauging on-site $\mathbb{Z}_2$ global symmetries of three-dimensional lattice Hamiltonians that permute quasi-particles and provide general arguments demonstrating the non-Abelian character of the resultant gauged theories. We then apply this general procedure to lattice models of several well known fracton phases: two copies of the X-Cube model, two copies of Haah's cubic code, and the checkerboard model. Where the former two models possess an on-site $\mathbb{Z}_2$ layer exchange symmetry, that of the latter is generated by the Hadamard gate. For each of these mo…
We present an effective field theory approach to the Fracton phases. The approach is based the notion of a multipole algebra. It is an extension of space(-time) symmetries of a charge-conserving matter that includes global symmetries responsible for the conservation of various components of the multipole moments of the charge density. We explain how to construct field theories invariant under the action of the algebra. These field theories generally break rotational invariance and exhibit anisotropic scaling. We further explain how to partially gauge the multipole algebra. Such gauging makes t…
We study complex scalar theories with dipole symmetry and uncover a no-go theorem that governs the structure of such theories and which, in particular, reveals that a Gaussian theory with linearly realised dipole symmetry must be Carrollian. The gauging of the dipole symmetry via the Noether procedure gives rise to a scalar gauge field and a spatial symmetric tensor gauge field. We construct a worldline theory of mobile objects that couple gauge invariantly to these gauge fields. We systematically develop the canonical theory of a dynamical symmetric tensor gauge field and arrive at scalar cha…
We propose a set of constraints on the ground-state wavefunctions of fracton phases, which provide a possible generalization of the string-net equations used to characterize topological orders in two spatial dimensions. Our constraint equations arise by exploiting a duality between certain fracton orders and quantum phases with "subsystem" symmetries, which are defined as global symmetries on lower-dimensional manifolds, and then studying the distinct ways in which the defects of a subsystem symmetry group can be consistently condensed to produce a gapped, symmetric state. We numerically solve…
We demonstrate a general gauging procedure of a pure matter theory on a lattice with a mixture of subsystem and global symmetries. This mixed symmetry can be either a semidirect product of a subsystem symmetry and a global symmetry, or a non-trivial extension of them. We demonstrate this gauging procedure on a cubic lattice in three dimensions with four examples: $G=\mathbb{Z}_3^{\text{sub}} \rtimes \mathbb{Z}_2^{\text{glo}}$, $G=(\mathbb{Z}_2^{\text{sub}} \times \mathbb{Z}_2^{\text{sub}}) \rtimes \mathbb{Z}_2^{\text{glo}}$, $1\to \mathbb {Z}_2^\text {sub}\to G\to \mathbb {Z}_2^\text {glo}\to …
Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Amsterdam（阿姆斯特丹大学理论物理研究所）；Dutch Institute for Emergent Phenomena（荷兰涌现现象研究所）；Institute for Advanced Study, University of Amsterdam（阿姆斯特丹大学高等研究院）
We study p-string condensation mechanisms for fracton phases from the viewpoint of higher-form symmetry, focusing on the examples of the X-cube model and the rank-two symmetric-tensor U(1) scalar charge theory. This work is motivated by questions of the relationship between fracton phases and continuum quantum field theories, and also provides general principles to describe p-string condensation independent of specific lattice model constructions. We give a perspective on higher-form symmetry in lattice models in terms of cellular homology. Applying this perspective to the coupled-layer constr…
We classify subsystem symmetry-protected topological (SSPT) phases in $3+1$D protected by planar subsystem symmetries, which are dual to abelian fracton topological orders. We distinguish between weak SSPTs, which can be constructed by stacking $2+1$D SPTs, and strong SSPTs, which cannot. We identify signatures of strong phases, and show by explicit construction that such phases exist. A classification of strong phases is presented for an arbitrary finite abelian group. Finally, we show that fracton orders realizable via $p$-string condensation are dual to weak SSPTs, while strong SSPTs do not…
We propose that the fracton models with subsystem symmetry can be a class of toy models for the holographic principle. The discovery of the anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory correspondence as a concrete construction of holography and the subsequent developments including the subregion duality and Ryu-Takayanagi formula of entanglement entropy have revolutionized our understanding of quantum gravity and provided powerful tool sets for solving various strongly-coupled quantum field theory problems. To resolve many mysteries of holography, toy models can be very helpful. One example is the ho…
We study spin systems which exhibit symmetries that act on a fractal subset of sites, with fractal structures generated by linear cellular automata. In addition to the trivial symmetric paramagnet and spontaneously symmetry broken phases, we construct additional fractal symmetry protected topological (FSPT) phases via a decorated defect approach. Such phases have edges along which fractal symmetries are realized projectively, leading to a symmetry protected degeneracy along the edge. Isolated excitations above the ground state are symmetry protected fractons, which cannot be moved without brea…
Multipole symmetries are of interest both as a window on fracton physics and as a crucial ingredient in realizing new universality classes for quantum dynamics. Here we address the question of whether and when multipole symmetries can be spontaneously broken, both in thermal equilibrium and at zero temperature. We derive generalized Mermin-Wagner arguments for the total or partial breaking of multipolar symmetry groups and generalized Imry-Ma arguments for the robustness of such multipolar symmetry breaking to disorder. We present both general results and explicit examples. Our results should …
We construct field theories in $2+1$ dimensions with multiple conformal symmetries acting on only one of the spatial directions. These can be considered a conformal extension to "subsystem scale invariances", borrowing the language often used for fractons.
We formulate a new class of tensor gauge field theories in any dimension that is a hybrid class between symmetric higher-rank tensor gauge theory (i.e., higher-spin gauge theory) and anti-symmetric tensor topological field theory. Our theory describes a mixed unitary phase interplaying between gapless and gapped topological order phases (which can live with or without Euclidean, Poincaré or anisotropic symmetry, at least in ultraviolet high or intermediate energy field theory, but not yet to a lattice cutoff scale). The "gauge structure" can be compact, continuous, abelian or non-abelian. Our …
We study 't Hooft anomalies and the related anomaly inflow for subsystem global symmetries. These symmetries and anomalies arise in a number of exotic systems, including models with fracton order such as the X-cube model. As is the case for ordinary global symmetries, anomalies for subsystem symmetries can be canceled by anomaly inflow from a bulk theory in one higher dimension; the corresponding bulk is therefore a non-trivial subsystem symmetry protected topological (SSPT) phase. We demonstrate these phenomena in several examples with continuous and discrete subsystem global symmetries, as w…
By gauging a higher-moment polynomial degree global symmetry and a discrete charge conjugation (i.e., particle-hole) symmetry coupled to matter fields (two symmetries mutually non-commutative), we derive a new class of higher-rank tensor non-abelian gauge field theory with dynamically gauged fractonic matter fields: Non-abelian gauged fractons interact with a hybrid class of higher-rank (symmetric or generic non-symmetric) tensor gauge theory and anti-symmetric tensor topological field theory, generalizing [arXiv:1909.13879, 1911.01804]. We also apply a quantum phase transition similar to that…
