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arXiv:1108.4954 · Physical Review B

Exactly soluble models for fractional topological insulators in two and three dimensions

Michael Levin, F. J. Burnell, Maciej Koch-Janusz, Ady Stern

Published Dec 27, 2011• 71 citations
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Abstract

We construct exactly soluble lattice models for fractionalized, time-reversal-invariant electronic insulators in two and three dimensions. The low-energy physics of these models is exactly equivalent to a noninteracting topological insulator built out of fractionally charged fermionic quasiparticles. We show that some of our models have protected edge modes [in two dimensions (2D)] and surface modes (in 3D), and are thus fractionalized analogs 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-reversal-invariant, charge-conserving perturbations. (A similar state of affairs may also exist in 3D.) We show that all of our models are topologically ordered, exhibiting fractional statistics as well as ground-state degeneracy on a torus. In the 3D case, we find that the models exhibit a fractional magnetoelectric effect.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.84.235145

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•Dec 1, 2015•0 citations
We construct exactly soluble lattice models for fractionalized, time-reversal-invariant electronic insulators in two and three dimensions. The low-energy physics of these models is exactly equivalent to a noninteracting topological insulator built out of fractionally charged fermionic quasiparticles. We show that some of our models have protected edge modes [in two dimensions (2D)] and surface modes (in 3D), and are thus fractionalized analogs 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-reversal-invariant, charge-conserving perturbations. (A similar state of affairs may also exist in 3D.) We show that all of our models are topologically ordered, exhibiting fractional statistics as well as ground-state degeneracy on a torus. In the 3D case, we find that the models exhibit a fractional magnetoelectric effect.
Following an earlier construction of exactly soluble lattice models for Abelian fractional topological insulators in two and three dimensions, we construct here an exactly soluble lattice model for a non-Abelian $\ensuremath{\nu}=1$ quantum Hall state and a non-Abelian topological insulator in two dimensions. We show that both models are topologically ordered, exhibiting fractionalized charge, ground-state degeneracy on the torus, and protected edge modes. The models feature non-Abelian vortices which carry fractional electric charge in the quantum Hall case and spin in the topological insulator case. We analyze the statistical properties of the excitations in detail and discuss the possibility of extending this construction to three-dimensional non-Abelian topological insulators.
Topological insulators are characterized by the presence of gapless surface modes protected by time-reversal symmetry. In three space dimensions the magnetoelectric response is described in terms of a bulk $\ensuremath{\theta}$ term for the electromagnetic field. Here we construct theoretical examples of such phases that cannot be smoothly connected to any band insulator. Such correlated topological insulators admit the possibility of fractional magnetoelectric response described by fractional $\ensuremath{\theta}/\ensuremath{\pi}$. We show that fractional $\ensuremath{\theta}/\ensuremath{\pi}$ is only possible in a gapped time-reversal-invariant system of bosons or fermions if the system also has deconfined fractional excitations and associated degenerate ground states on topologically nontrivial spaces. We illustrate this result with a concrete example of a time-reversal-symmetric topological insulator of correlated bosons with $\ensuremath{\theta}=\frac{\ensuremath{\pi}}{4}$. Extensions to electronic fractional topological insulators are briefly described.
In this paper we propose an exactly soluble model in a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice, from which two phases are found. One is the usual Chern/topological insulating state and the other is an interesting Z2{Z}_{2}Z2​ fractionalized Chern/topological insulator. While their bulk properties are similar, the edge states of physical electrons are quite different. The single electron excitation of the former shows a free particle like behavior while the latter one is gapped, which provides a definite signature to identify the fractionalized states. The transition between these two phases is found to fall into the three-dimensional Ising universal class. Significantly, near the quantum transition point the physical electron in the edge states shows strong Luttinger liquid behavior. An extension to the interesting case of the square lattice is also made. In addition, we also discuss some relationship between our exactly soluble model and various Hubbard-like models existing in the literature. The essential difference between the proposed Z2{Z}_{2}Z2​ fractionalized Chern insulator and the hotly pursued fractional Chern insulator is also pointed out. The present work may be helpful for further study on the fractionalized insulating phase and related novel correlated quantum phases.
Time-reversal invariant three-dimensional topological insulators can be defined fundamentally by a topological field theory with a quantized axion angle $\ensuremath{\theta}$ of 0 or $\ensuremath{\pi}$. It was recently shown that fractional quantized values of $\ensuremath{\theta}$ are consistent with time-reversal invariance if deconfined, gapped, fractionally charged bulk excitations appear in the low-energy spectrum due to strong correlation effects, leading to the concept of a fractional topological insulator. These fractionally charged excitations are coupled to emergent gauge fields, which ensure that the microscopic degrees of freedom, the original electrons, are gauge-invariant objects. A first step towards the construction of microscopic models of fractional topological insulators is to understand the nature of these emergent gauge theories and their corresponding phases. In this work, we show that low-energy effective gauge theories of both Abelian or non-Abelian type are consistent with a fractional quantized axion angle if they admit a Coulomb phase or a Higgs phase with gauge group broken down to a discrete subgroup. The Coulomb phases support gapless but electrically neutral bulk excitations while the Higgs phases are fully gapped. The Higgs and non-Abelian Coulomb phases exhibit multiple ground states on boundaryless spatial three-manifolds with nontrivial first homology, while the Abelian Coulomb phase has a unique ground state. The ground-state degeneracy receives an additional contribution on manifolds with boundary due to the induced boundary Chern-Simons term.
Fractional topological insulators (FTIs) are electronic topological phases in (3+1)(3+1)(3+1) dimensions enriched by time reversal (TR) and charge U(1)U(1)U(1) conservation symmetries. We focus on the simplest series of fermionic FTIs, whose bulk quasiparticles consist of deconfined partons that carry fractional electric charges in integral units of e∗=e/(2n+1){e}^{*}=e/(2n+1)e∗=e/(2n+1) and couple to a discrete Z2n+1{\mathbb{Z}}_{2n+1}Z2n+1​ gauge theory. We propose massive symmetry preserving or breaking FTI surface states. Combining the long-ranged entangled bulk with these topological surface states, we deduce the novel topological order of quasi-(2+1)(2+1)(2+1)-dimensional FTI slabs as well as their corresponding edge conformal field theories.
In the past few years, the discovery of topological insulators has resurrected the study of exotic phases of matter beyond the Landau symmetry breaking paradigm. In this thesis, we focus on two particular classes of exotic phases, known as "topological phases" and "symmetry protected topological phases (SPT phases)" in 2D and 3D. Topological phases are generalizations of fractional quantum Hall liquids while SPT phases are generalizations of topological insulators. We investigate topological phases and SPT phases by constructing and analyzing appropriate exactly soluble lattice spin models. We address the following three questions: The first question involves a large class of exactly soluble lattice spin models called string-net models. It is known that string-net models can realize a large class of 2D topological phases, but it is unclear what topological phases can and can not be realized by these models. Thus our first question is: what are the most general topological phases that can be realized by string-net models? We find that a topological phase can be realized by a string-net model if and only if it supports a gapped edge, i.e. the edge can be gapped by suitable local interactions. In the second question we ask: how can we distinguish different 3D topological phases? While it is well known that 3D topological phases can be distinguished by the braiding statistics between particle and loop-like excitations, we construct two exactly soluble lattice models that demonstrate that we also have to consider the braiding statistics of loops with other loops. In the final part of the thesis, we derive a bulk-boundary correspondence for 3D SPT phases. More specifically, we prove that a particular exactly soluble lattice spin model has protected surface states using the fact that the vortex loop excitations in the bulk have non-trivial braiding statistics. We prove the result for a particular 3D exactly soluble lattice model, but our arguments apply more generally.