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arXiv:0909.4059 · Physical Review B

Symmetry protection of topological phases in one-dimensional quantum spin systems

Frank Pollmann, Erez Berg, Ari M. Turner, Masaki Oshikawa

Published Feb 22, 2012• 849 citations
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Abstract

We discuss the characterization and stability of the Haldane phase in integer spin chains on the basis of simple, physical arguments. We find that an odd-$S$ Haldane phase is a topologically nontrivial phase which is protected by any one of the following three global symmetries: (i) the dihedral group of $\ensuremath{\pi}$ rotations about the $x$, $y$, and $z$ axes, (ii) time-reversal symmetry ${S}^{x,y,z}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{-}{S}^{x,y,z}$, and (iii) link inversion symmetry (reflection about a bond center), consistent with previous results [Phys. Rev. B 81, 064439 (2010)]. On the other hand, an even-$S$ Haldane phase is not topologically protected (i.e., it is indistinct from a trivial, site-factorizable phase). We show some numerical evidence that supports these claims, using concrete examples.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.85.075125

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We discuss the characterization and stability of the Haldane phase in integer spin chains on the basis of simple, physical arguments. We find that an odd-SSS Haldane phase is a topologically nontrivial phase which is protected by any one of the following three global symmetries: (i) the dihedral group of \ensuremathπ\ensuremath{\pi}\ensuremathπ rotations about the xxx, yyy, and zzz axes, (ii) time-reversal symmetry Sx,y,z\ensuremath→\ensuremath−Sx,y,z{S}^{x,y,z}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{-}{S}^{x,y,z}Sx,y,z\ensuremath→\ensuremath−Sx,y,z, and (iii) link inversion symmetry (reflection about a bond center), consistent with previous results [Phys. Rev. B 81, 064439 (2010)]. On the other hand, an even-SSS Haldane phase is not topologically protected (i.e., it is indistinct from a trivial, site-factorizable phase). We show some numerical evidence that supports these claims, using concrete examples.
We study different phases of the one-dimensional bond-alternating spin-1/21/21/2 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 even/odd bonds, which are protected by the time-reversal (acting on the spin as σ→−σ\sigma\rightarrow-\sigmaσ→−σ), parity (permutation of the chain about a specific bond), and dihedral (π\piπ-rotations about a pair of orthogonal axes) symmetries. Additionally, we investigate the phases of the most general two-body bond-alternating spin-1/21/21/2 model, which respects the time-reversal, parity, and dihedral symmetries, and obtain its corresponding twelve different types of the symmetry-protected topological phases.
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 and commutation relations 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 even/odd bonds, which are protected by the time-reversal (acting on the spin as σ → -σ), parity (permutation of the chain about a specific bond), and dihedral (π-rotations about a pair of orthogonal axes) symmetries. Additionally, we investigate the phases of the most general two-body bond-alternating spin-1/2 model, which respects the time-reversal, parity, and dihedral symmetries, and obtain its corresponding twelve different types of the symmetry-protected topological phases.
The ground state of the S=1 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain belongs to the Haldane phase--a well-known example of the symmetry-protected topological phase. A staggered field applied to the S=1 antiferromagnetic chain breaks all the symmetries that protect the Haldane phase as a topological phase, reducing it to a trivial phase. That is, the Haldane phase is then connected adiabatically to an antiferromagnetic product state. Nevertheless, as long as the symmetry under site-centered inversion combined with a spin rotation is preserved, the phase is still distinct from another trivial phase. We demonstrate the existence of such distinct symmetry-protected trivial phases using a field-theoretical approach and numerical calculations. Furthermore, a general proof and a nonlocal order parameter are given in terms of a matrix-product state formulation.
We show that the Haldane phase of S=1S=1S=1 chains is characterized by a double degeneracy of the entanglement spectrum. The degeneracy is protected by a set of symmetries (either the dihedral group of $\ensuremath{\pi}$ rotations about two orthogonal axes, time-reversal symmetry, or bond centered inversion symmetry), and cannot be lifted unless either a phase boundary to another, ``topologically trivial,'' phase is crossed, or the symmetry is broken. More generally, these results offer a scheme to classify gapped phases of one-dimensional systems. Physically, the degeneracy of the entanglement spectrum can be observed by adiabatically weakening a bond to zero, which leaves the two disconnected halves of the system in a finitely entangled state.
We investigate disordered phases realized in one-dimensional quantum spin systems.We revisit an effective field theory proposed by Schulz [Phys.Rev. B 34, 6372 (1986)], which encapsulates several essential properties in low energy, from the point of view of symmetry.Although this effective theory was originally derived by perturbation theory, we find that it is fully consistent with the symmetry of the Hamiltonian and thus uniquely identified in the non-perturbative sense.This theory explains many possible phase transitions known to occur among valence-bond-solid phases, which are typical disordered phases in one-dimensional spin systems.Furthermore, this theory indicates that the phase transitions only occur under one of four symmetries: time reversal, bond-centered inversion, dihedral group of spin rotations, and site-centered inversion combined with a spin rotation.Surprisingly, the first three symmetries are consistent with those protecting the Haldane phase in spin-1 chains, which have already been found by a completely different approach using the matrix-product state (MPS).On the other hand, the last one is not known so far.To understand it, we explicitly construct a microscopic model that has two distinct disordered phases protected by the combined inversion symmetry.We examine this model and confirm the existence of those disordered phases by perturbation theory and numerical simulations.For completeness, we further give a more rigorous proof of their existence, based on the non-translation-invariant MPS.We also propose an extension of the Lieb-Schultz-Mattis theorem for the absence of a unique gapped ground state in half-odd-integer spin systems with site-centered inversion symmetry.
Symmetry protected topological (SPT) phases are gapped short-range-entangled quantum phases with a symmetry GGG. 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 phases which is protected by SO(3)\mathit{SO}(3)SO(3) spin rotation symmetry. The topological insulator is another example of SPT phases which are protected by U(1)U(1)U(1) and time-reversal symmetries. In this paper, we show that interacting bosonic SPT phases can be systematically described by group cohomology theory: Distinct ddd-dimensional bosonic SPT phases with on-site symmetry GGG (which may contain antiunitary time-reversal symmetry) can be labeled by the elements in H1+d[G,UT(1)]{\mathcal{H}}^{1+d}[G,{U}_{T}(1)]H1+d[G,UT​(1)], the Borel (1+d)(1+d)(1+d)-group-cohomology classes of GGG over the GGG module UT(1){U}_{T}(1)UT​(1). Our theory, which leads to explicit ground-state wave functions and commuting projector Hamiltonians, is based on a new type of topological term that generalizes the topological $\ensuremath{\theta}$ term in continuous nonlinear $\ensuremath{\sigma}$ models to lattice nonlinear $\ensuremath{\sigma}$ models. The boundary excitations of the nontrivial SPT phases are described by lattice nonlinear $\ensuremath{\sigma}$ models with a nonlocal Lagrangian term that generalizes the Wess-Zumino-Witten term for continuous nonlinear $\ensuremath{\sigma}$ models. As a result, the symmetry GGG must be realized as a non-on-site symmetry for the low-energy boundary excitations, and those boundary states must be gapless or degenerate. As an application of our result, we can use ${\mathcal{H}}^{1+d}[U(1)\ensuremath{\rtimes}{Z}_{2}^{T},{U}_{T}(1)]$ to obtain interacting bosonic topological insulators (protected by time reversal Z2T{Z}_{2}^{T}Z2T​ and boson number conservation), which contain one nontrivial phase in one-dimensional (1D) or 2D and three in 3D. We also obtain interacting bosonic topological superconductors (protected by time-reversal symmetry only), in term of H1+d[Z2T,UT(1)]{\mathcal{H}}^{1+d}[{Z}_{2}^{T},{U}_{T}(1)]H1+d[Z2T​,UT​(1)], which contain one nontrivial phase in odd spatial dimensions and none for even dimensions. Our result is much more general than the above two examples, since it is for any symmetry group. For example, we can use ${\mathcal{H}}^{1+d}[U(1)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{Z}_{2}^{T},{U}_{T}(1)]$ to construct the SPT phases of integer spin systems with time-reversal and U(1)U(1)U(1) spin rotation symmetry, which contain three nontrivial SPT phases in 1D, none in 2D, and seven in 3D. Even more generally, we find that the different bosonic symmetry breaking short-range-entangled phases are labeled by the following three mathematical objects: $({G}_{H},{G}_{\ensuremath{\Psi}},{\mathcal{H}}^{1+d}[{G}_{\ensuremath{\Psi}},{U}_{T}(1)])$, where GH{G}_{H}GH​ is the symmetry group of the Hamiltonian and ${G}_{\ensuremath{\Psi}}$ the symmetry group of the ground states.