Motivated by a deeper understanding of strongly interacting topological phases and fractional Chern insulators the authors propose a formulation of a discretized Chern-Simon theory on random lattices and graphs.
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.
In this paper we construct fully symmetric wave functions for the spin-polarized fractional Chern insulators (FCIs) and time-reversal-invariant fractional topological insulators (FTIs) in two dimensions using the parton approach. We show that the lattice symmetry gives rise to many different FCI and FTI phases even with the same filling fraction $\ensuremath{\nu}$ (and the same quantized Hall conductance ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{xy}$ in the FCI case). They have different symmetry-protected topological orders, which are characterized by different projective symmetry groups. We mainly focus on FCI phases which are realized in a partially filled band with Chern number 1. The low-energy gauge groups of a generic ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{xy}=1/m\ifmmode\cdot\else\textperiodcentered\fi{}{e}^{2}/h$ FCI wave function can be either SU(m) or the discrete group Zm, and in the latter case the associated low-energy physics are described by Chern-Simons-Higgs theories. We use our construction to compute the ground-state degeneracy. Examples of FCI/FTI wave functions on honeycomb lattice and checkerboard lattice are explicitly given. Possible non-Abelian FCI phases which may be realized in a partially filled band with Chern number 2 are discussed. Generic FTI wave functions in the absence of spin conservation are also presented whose low-energy gauge groups can be either $\text{SU}(m)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}\text{SU}(m)$ or ${Z}_{m}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{Z}_{m}$. The constructed wave functions also set up the framework for future variational Monte Carlo simulations.
The Chern-Simons theory is a powerful tool in the study of 2+1D topological phases, especially quantum Hall systems. Here, the authors extend the framework by allowing an infinite number of gauge fields and use it to study the 3+1D fracton order. Fracton order has been studied mostly using lattice models and higher-rank gauge theories. The introduction of the Chern-Simons formulation allows the user to take advantage of theoretical tools developed over the past decades for quantum Hall systems. In particular, the authors are able to study foliated fracton order more systematically and identify a new type of fracton order, not possible in previous formulations.