Anyons in a topologically ordered phase can carry fractional quantum numbers with respect to the symmetry group of the considered system, one example being the fractional charge of the quasiparticles and quasiholes in the fractional quantum Hall effect. When such symmetry-fractionalized anyons condense, the resulting phase must spontaneously break the symmetry and display a local order parameter. In this paper, we study the phase diagram and anyon condensation transitions of a \mathbb{Z}_2 ℤ 2 topological order perturbed by Ising interactions in the Toric Code. The interplay between the global (``onsite’’) Ising ( \mathbb{Z}_2 ℤ 2 ) symmetry and the lattice space group symmetries results in a non-trivial symmetry fractionalization class for the anyons, and is shown to lead to two characteristically different confined, symmetry-broken phases. To understand the anyon condensation transitions, we use the recently introduced critical torus energy spectrum technique to identify a line of emergent 2+1D XY* transitions ending at a fine-tuned (Ising ^2 2 )* critical point. We provide numerical evidence for the occurrence of two symmetry breaking patterns predicted by the specific symmetry fractionalization class of the condensed anyons in the explored phase diagram. In combination with large-scale quantum Monte Carlo simulations we measure unusually large critical exponents \eta η for the scaling of the correlation function at the continuous anyon condensation transitions, and we further identify lines of (weakly) first order transitions in the phase diagram. As an important additional result, we discuss the phase diagram of a resulting 2+1D Ashkin-Teller model, where we demonstrate that torus spectroscopy is capable of identifying emergent XY/O(2) critical behaviour, thereby solving some longstanding open questions in the domain of the 3D Ashkin-Teller models. To establish the generality of our results, we propose a field theoretical description capturing the transition from a \mathbb{Z}_2 ℤ 2 topological order to either \mathbb{Z}_2 ℤ 2 symmetry broken phase, which is in excellent agreement with the numerical results.
The quantum Hall effect has been the prototypical example for many emerging fields of Physics, including the study of topological phases of matter, topological order, and topological insulators. The objects of interest in this thesis are anyons, which are elementary excitations in fractional quantum Hall (FQH) fluids. Anyons are quasiparticles with fractional charge and fractional statistics. The latter prop- erty makes it a subject of immense interest due to application in fault-tolerant quantum computing. Here, we employ a perspective that anyons are the appro- priate degree of freedom to describe the relevant physics of FQH systems. This is because when a topological phase is assumed and the energy gap goes to infinity, anyons (“quasiholes”) are the only possible elementary excitations, since they are not energetically punished by the correspondng model Hamiltonian. With respect to a realistic Hamiltonian, however, this choice of degree of freedom depends on the exact effective interaction in the system. For example, while the Laughlin state is the model state at filling factor n + 1/3 (where n is some integer), when the effective electron-electron interaction is more long-ranged, the quasiholes of a Gaffnian state may be excited and become the better degree of freedom to describe physics in the same filling factor. This perspective results in a surprising observa- tion that a Laughlin quasihole may fractionalize under certain conditions, leading to a quasiparticle of charge e/6 that can potentially be detected in experiments. Another important aspect of anyons is their intrinsic spin and the corresponding spin-statistics relation, which must account for the fact that FQH anyons are not point particles, but objects with finite sizes and intricate internal structures. Our investigation leads to a rigorous derivation of the general spin-statistics relation for anyons in Abelian FQH phases. Furthermore, we show it is possible to fully capture the important features of the statistics by a conformal Hilbert space (CHS) description. Our analysis provides the necessary tools to study such geometric effects, which we use to investigate how disorder in a realistic system may affect different experimental schemes for measuring anyon statistics.
The hallmark of a two-dimensional (2d) topologically ordered phase is the existence of deconfined ``anyon'' excitations that have exotic braiding and exchange statistics, different from those of ordinary bosons or fermions. As opposed to conventional Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson phases, which are classified on the basis of the spontaneous breaking of an underlying symmetry, topologically ordered phases, such as those occurring in the fractional quantum Hall effect, are absolutely stable, not requiring any such symmetry. Recently, though, it has been realized that symmetries, which may still be present in such systems, can give rise to a host of new, distinct, many-body phases, all of which share the same underlying topological order. These ``symmetry enriched'' topological (SET) phases are distinguished not on the basis of anyon braiding statistics alone, but also by the symmetry properties of the anyons, such as their fractional charges, or the way that different anyons are permuted by the symmetry. Thus a useful approach to classifying SETs is to determine all possible such symmetry actions on the anyons that are algebraically consistent with the anyon statistics. Remarkably, however, there exist symmetry actions that, despite being algebraically consistent, cannot be realized in any physical system, and hence do not lead to valid 2d SETs. One class of such ``anomalous'' SETs, characterized by certain disallowed symmetry fractionalization patterns, finds a physical interpretation as an allowed surface state of certain three-dimensional (3d) short-range entangled phases, but another, characterized by some seemingly valid but anomalous permutation actions of the symmetry on the anyons and encoded in an
H3(G,A) group cohomology class, has so far eluded a physical interpretation. In this work, we find a way to physically realize these anomalously permuting SETs at the surfaces of certain 3d long-range entangled phases, expanding our understanding of general anomalous SETs in two dimensions.
Fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states are examples of symmetry-enriched topological states (SETs): in addition to the intrinsic topological order, which is robust to symmetry breaking, they possess symmetry-protected topological invariants, such as fractional charge of anyons and fractional Hall conductivity. In this paper we develop a comprehensive theory of symmetry-protected topological invariants for FQH states with spatial symmetries, which applies to Abelian and non-Abelian topological states, by using a recently developed framework of
G-crossed braided tensor categories (
G×BTCs) for SETs. We consider systems with
U(1) charge conservation, magnetic translational, and spatial rotational symmetries, in the continuum and for all
5 orientation-preserving crystalline space groups in two dimensions, allowing arbitrary rational magnetic flux per unit cell, and assuming that symmetries do not permute anyons. In the crystalline setting, applicable to fractional Chern insulators and spin liquids, symmetry fractionalization is fully characterized by a generalization to non-Abelian states of the charge, spin, discrete torsion, and area vectors, which specify fractional charge, angular momentum, linear momentum, and fractionalization of the translation algebra for each anyon. The topological response theory contains
9 terms, which attach charge, linear momentum, and angular momentum to magnetic flux, lattice dislocations, disclinations, corners, and units of area. Using the
G×BTC formalism, we derive the formula relating charge filling to the Hall conductivity and flux per unit cell; in the continuum this relates the filling fraction and the Hall conductivity without assuming Galilean invariance. We provide systematic formulas for topological invariants within the
G×BTC framework; this gives, for example, a new categorical definition of the Hall conductivity.
Topological order in two-dimensions can be described in terms of deconfined quasiparticle excitations—anyons—and their braiding statistics. However, it has recently been realized that this data does not completely describe the situation in the presence of an unbroken global symmetry. In this case, there can be multiple distinct quantum phases with the same anyons and statistics, but with different patterns of symmetry fractionalization—termed symmetry enriched topological order. When the global symmetry group G , which we take to be discrete, does not change topological superselection sectors—i.e. does not change one type of anyon into a different type of anyon—one can imagine a local version of the action of G around each anyon. This leads to projective representations and a group cohomology description of symmetry fractionalization, with the second cohomology group H 2 ( G , A a b e l i a n ) being the relevant group. In this paper, we treat the general case of a symmetry group G possibly permuting anyon types. We show that despite the lack of a local action of G , one can still make sense of a so-called twisted group cohomology description of symmetry fractionalization, and show how this data is encoded in the associativity of fusion rules of the extrinsic ‘twist’ defects of the symmetry. Furthermore, building on work of Hermele (2014 Phys. Rev. B 90 184418 ), we construct a wide class of exactly-solvable models which exhibit this twisted symmetry fractionalization, and connect them to our formal framework.
The quantum-mechanical description of assemblies of particles whose motion is confined to two (or one) spatial dimensions offers many possibilities that are distinct from bosons and fermions. We call such particles anyons. The simplest anyons are parameterized by an angular phase parameter
θ.
θ=0,π correspond to bosons and fermions respectively; at intermediate values we say that we have fractional statistics. In two dimensions,
θ describes the phase acquired by the wave function as two anyons wind around one another counterclockwise. It generates a shift in the allowed values for the relative angular momentum. Composites of localized electric charge and magnetic flux associated with an abelian U(1) gauge group realize this behavior. More complex charge-flux constructions can involve non-abelian and product groups acting on a spectrum of allowed charges and fluxes, giving rise to nonabelian and mutual statistics. Interchanges of non-abelian anyons implement unitary transformations of the wave function within an emergent space of internal states. Anyons of all kinds are described by quantum field theories that include Chern--Simons terms. The crossings of one-dimensional anyons on a ring are uni-directional, such that a fractional phase
θ acquired upon interchange gives rise to fractional shifts in the relative momenta between the anyons. The quasiparticle excitations of fractional quantum Hall states have long been predicted to include anyons. Recently the anyon behavior predicted for quasiparticles in the
ν=1/3 fractional quantum Hall state has been observed both in scattering and in interferometric experiments. Excitations within designed systems, notably including superconducting circuits, can exhibit anyon behavior. Such systems are being developed for possible use in quantum information processing.