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arXiv:1509.07133 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Coupled wire model of symmetric Majorana surfaces of topological superconductors

Sharmistha Sahoo, Zhao Zhang, Jeffrey C. Y. Teo

Published Oct 19, 2016• 41 citations
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Abstract

Classification of symmetry-protected topological phases such as the topological superconductor (TSC) is well known in the free fermion picture. Recently, it was observed that including many-body interactions that preserves symmetry gives rise to novel surface phases and breaks down the classification scheme. A complete understanding of the microscopic theory for such phases is missing. This paper is an attempt to understand the interaction that gives rise to these phases in the case of the three-dimensional TSC. The authors build a coupled wire model Hamiltonian for the gapless surface and show that the addition of a time-reversal symmetric two-body interaction, constructed in this paper, opens an energy gap in the spectrum. They also show this gapped surface phase is topologically nontrivial and is classified differently compared to the noninteracting case.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.94.165142

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Classification of symmetry-protected topological phases such as the topological superconductor (TSC) is well known in the free fermion picture. Recently, it was observed that including many-body interactions that preserves symmetry gives rise to novel surface phases and breaks down the classification scheme. A complete understanding of the microscopic theory for such phases is missing. This paper is an attempt to understand the interaction that gives rise to these phases in the case of the three-dimensional TSC. The authors build a coupled wire model Hamiltonian for the gapless surface and show that the addition of a time-reversal symmetric two-body interaction, constructed in this paper, opens an energy gap in the spectrum. They also show this gapped surface phase is topologically nontrivial and is classified differently compared to the noninteracting case.
Topological nodal superconductors possess gapless low energy excitations that are characterized by point or line nodal Fermi surfaces. In this work, using a coupled wire construction, we study topological nodal superconductors that have protected Dirac nodal points. In this construction, the low-energy electronic degrees of freedom are confined in a three-dimensional array of wires, which emerge as pairing vortices of a microscopic superconducting system. The vortex array harbors an antiferromagnetic time-reversal and a mirror glide symmetry that protect the massless Dirac fermion in the single-body noninteracting limit. Within this model, we demonstrate exact-solvable many-body interactions that preserve the underlying symmetries and introduce a finite excitation energy gap. These gapping interactions support fractionalization and generically lead to nontrivial topological order. We also construct a special case of N=16N=16N=16 Dirac fermions where the corresponding gapping interaction leads to a trivial E8{E}_{8}E8​ topological order that is closely related to the cancellation of the large gravitational anomaly.
Symmetry-protected and symmetry-enriched topological (SPT/SET) phases in three dimensions are quantum systems that support nontrivial two-dimensional (2D) surface states. These surface states develop finite excitation energy gaps when the relevant symmetries are broken. On the other hand, one-dimensional (1D) gapless modes can populate along interfaces that separate adjacent gapped surface domains with distinct symmetry-breaking orders. A surface strip pattern in general reduces the low-energy SPT/SET surface degrees of freedom onto a 2D array of gapless 1D channels. These channels can be coupled to one another by quasiparticle tunneling, and these interwire interactions collectively provide an effective description of the surface state. In this paper, we study a general class of symmetry-preserving or -breaking SPT/SET surface states that admit finite excitation energy gaps and Abelian topological orders via the coupled-wire construction. In particular, we focus on the prototype Abelian surface topological orders that fall under the ADEADEADE classification of simply laced Lie algebras. We also elaborate on the emergent symmetry and duality properties of the coupled-wire models.
A time-reversal invariant Kitaev-type model is introduced in which spins (Dirac matrices) on the square lattice interact via anisotropic nearest-neighbor and next-nearest-neighbor exchange interactions. The model is exactly solved by mapping it onto a tight-binding model of free Majorana fermions coupled with static Z2{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}Z2​ gauge fields. The Majorana fermion model can be viewed as a model of time-reversal-invariant superconductor and is classified as a member of symmetry class DIII in the Altland-Zirnbauer classification. The ground-state phase diagram has two topologically distinct gapped phases which are distinguished by a Z2{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}Z2​ topological invariant. The topologically nontrivial phase supports both a Kramers' pair of gapless Majorana edge modes at the boundary and a Kramers' pair of zero-energy Majorana states bound to a 0-flux vortex in the $\ensuremath{\pi}$-flux background. Power-law decaying correlation functions of spins along the edge are obtained by taking the gapless Majorana edge modes into account. The model is also defined on the one-dimension ladder, in which case again the ground-state phase diagram has Z2{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}Z2​ trivial and nontrivial phases.
Three dimensional topological superconductors with time reversal symmetry (class DIII) are indexed by an integer ννν, the number of surface Majorana cones, according to the free fermion classification. The superfluid B phase of He3^33 realizes the ν=1ν=1ν=1 phase. Recently, it has been argued that this classification is reduced in the presence of interactions to Z16_{16}16​. This was argued from the symmetry respecting surface topological orders of these states, which provide a non-perturbative definition of the bulk topological phase. Here, we verify this conclusion by focusing on the even index case, ν=2mν=2mν=2m, where a vortex condensation approach can be used to explicitly derive the surface topological orders. We show a direct relation to the well known result on one dimensional topological superconductors (class BDI), where interactions reduce the free fermion classification from Z down to Z8_88​. Finally, we discuss in detail the fermionic analog of Kramers time reversal symmetry, which allows semions of some surface topological orders to transform as T2=±iT^2=\pm iT2=±i.
Crystalline symmetry and time-reversal symmetry are commonly present in real superconducting materials. However, the topological classification of systems respecting these symmetries, particularly for interacting fermions, remains incomplete. In this work, we systematically classify time-reversal symmetry-protected crystalline topological superconductors in two-dimensional interacting fermionic systems using an explicit real-space construction. Among the resulting phases, we identify intrinsically interacting fermionic topological superconductors, i.e., phases that cannot be realized in either free-fermion or interacting bosonic systems. For spinless fermions with protecting symmetry group C4×Z2TC_4 \times Z_2^TC4​×Z2T​ or D4×Z2TD_4 \times Z_2^TD4​×Z2T​ (plus fermion parity), the intrinsic sector has a Z4Z_4Z4​ classification. The corresponding root phases generating this Z4Z_4Z4​ classification admit a transparent real-space construction in terms of decorated 1D blocks. These blocks are 1D fermionic symmetry-protected topological (FSPT) phases, realizable as double Majorana chains. We further find the corresponding Z4Z_4Z4​ spinless intrinsic phases for wallpaper groups p4p4p4, p4mp4mp4m, and p4gp4gp4g. We also find an additional Z2Z_2Z2​ intrinsically interacting phase for spinless fermions with wallpaper group pmpmpm, which is absent with the corresponding point-group symmetry alone. Moreover, these intrinsic phases naturally give rise to higher-order FSPT phases that support corner zero modes. Finally, we verify the crystalline equivalence principle for generic 2D interacting FSPT systems with both crystalline and internal symmetries.
Although classification for free-fermion topological superconductors (TSC) is established, systematically understanding the classification of 3D interacting TSCs remains difficult, especially those protected by crystalline symmetries like the 230 space groups. We build up a general framework for systematically classifying 3D interacting TSCs protected by crystalline symmetries together with discrete internal symmetries. We first establish a complete classification for fermionic symmetry protected topological phases (FSPT) with purely discrete internal symmetries, which determines the crystalline case via the crystalline equivalence principle. Using domain wall decoration, we obtain classification data and formulas for generic FSPTs, what are suitable for systematic computation. The four layers of decoration data (n1,n2,n3,ν4)(n_1, n_2, n_3, ν_4)(n1​,n2​,n3​,ν4​) characterize a 3D FSPT with symmetry Gb×ω2Z2fG_b\times_{ω_2}Z_2^fGb​×ω2​​Z2f​, corresponding to p+ipp+ipp+ip, Kitaev chain, complex fermion, and bosonic SPT layers. Inspired by previous works, a crucial aspect is the p+ipp+ipp+ip layer, where classification involves two possibilities: anti-unitary and infinite-order symmetries (e.g., translation). We show the former maps to some mirror FSPT classification with the mirror plane decorated by a p+ipp+ipp+ip superconductor, while the latter is determined by the free part of H1(Gb,ZT)H^1(G_b, Z_T)H1(Gb​,ZT​), corresponding to weak TSCs. Another key point is the Kitaev chain decoration for the anti-unitary symmetries, which differs essentially from unitary ones. We explicitly obtain formulas for all three layers of decoration (n2,n3,ν4)(n_2, n_3, ν_4)(n2​,n3​,ν4​), which are amenable to automatic computation. As an application, we classify the 230 space-group topological crystalline superconductors in interacting electronic systems.