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arXiv:1707.07686 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Intrinsic and emergent anomalies at deconfined critical points

Max A. Metlitski, Ryan Thorngren

Published Aug 24, 2018• 160 citations
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Abstract

It is well known that theorems of Lieb-Schultz-Mattis type prohibit the existence of a trivial symmetric gapped ground state in certain systems possessing a combination of internal and lattice symmetries. In the continuum description of such systems, the Lieb-Schultz-Mattis theorem is manifested in the form of a quantum anomaly afflicting the symmetry. We demonstrate this phenomenon in the context of the deconfined critical point between a Neel state and a valence bond solid in an $S=1/2$ square lattice antiferromagnet and compare it to the case of $S=1/2$ honeycomb lattice where no anomaly is present. We also point out that new anomalies, unrelated to the microscopic Lieb-Schultz-Mattis theorem, can emerge, prohibiting the existence of a trivial gapped state in the immediate vicinity of critical points or phases. For instance, no translationally invariant weak perturbation of the $S=1/2$ gapless spin chain can open up a trivial gap even if the spin-rotation symmetry is explicitly broken. The same result holds for the $S=1/2$ deconfined critical point on a square lattice.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.98.085140

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It is well known that theorems of Lieb-Schultz-Mattis type prohibit the existence of a trivial symmetric gapped ground state in certain systems possessing a combination of internal and lattice symmetries. In the continuum description of such systems, the Lieb-Schultz-Mattis theorem is manifested in the form of a quantum anomaly afflicting the symmetry. We demonstrate this phenomenon in the context of the deconfined critical point between a Neel state and a valence bond solid in an S=1/2S=1/2S=1/2 square lattice antiferromagnet and compare it to the case of S=1/2S=1/2S=1/2 honeycomb lattice where no anomaly is present. We also point out that new anomalies, unrelated to the microscopic Lieb-Schultz-Mattis theorem, can emerge, prohibiting the existence of a trivial gapped state in the immediate vicinity of critical points or phases. For instance, no translationally invariant weak perturbation of the S=1/2S=1/2S=1/2 gapless spin chain can open up a trivial gap even if the spin-rotation symmetry is explicitly broken. The same result holds for the S=1/2S=1/2S=1/2 deconfined critical point on a square lattice.
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Lieb-Schultz-Mattis (LSM) theorems impose non-perturbative constraints on the zero-temperature phase diagrams of quantum lattice Hamiltonians (always assumed to be local in this paper). LSM theorems have recently been interpreted as the lattice counterparts to mixed ’t Hooft anomalies in quantum field theories that arise from a combination of crystalline and global internal symmetry groups. Accordingly, LSM theorems have been reinterpreted as LSM anomalies. In this work, we provide a systematic diagnostic for LSM anomalies in one spatial dimension. We show that gauging subgroups of the global internal symmetry group of a quantum lattice model obeying an LSM anomaly delivers a dual quantum lattice Hamiltonian such that its internal and crystalline symmetries mix non-trivially through a group extension. This mixing of crystalline and internal symmetries after gauging is a direct consequence of the LSM anomaly, i.e., it can be used as a diagnostic of an LSM anomaly. We exemplify this procedure for a quantum spin-1/2 chain obeying an LSM anomaly resulting from combining a global internal \mathbb{Z}^{\,}_{2}×\mathbb{Z}^{\,}_{2} ℤ 2 × ℤ 2 symmetry with translation or reflection symmetry. We establish a triality of models by gauging a \mathbb{Z}^{\,}_{2}\subset\mathbb{Z}^{\,}_{2}×\mathbb{Z}^{\,}_{2} ℤ 2 ⊂ ℤ 2 × ℤ 2 symmetry in two ways, one of which amounts to performing a Kramers-Wannier duality, while the other implements a Jordan-Wigner duality. We discuss the mapping of the phase diagram of the quantum spin-1/2 XYZ X Y Z chains under such a triality. We show that the deconfined quantum critical transitions between Neel and dimer orders are mapped to either topological or conventional Landau-Ginzburg transitions. Finally, we extend our results to \mathbb{Z}^{\,}_{n} ℤ n clock models with \mathbb{Z}^{\,}_{n}×\mathbb{Z}^{\,}_{n} ℤ n × ℤ n global internal symmetry, and provide a reinterpretation of the dual internal symmetries in terms of \mathbb{Z}^{\,}_{n} ℤ n charge and dipole symmetries.
The Lieb-Schultz-Mattis (LSM) theorem dictates that emergent low-energy states from a lattice model cannot be a trivial symmetric insulator if the filling per unit cell is not integral and if the lattice translation symmetry and particle number conservation are strictly imposed. In this paper, we compare the one-dimensional gapless states enforced by the LSM theorem and the boundaries of one-higher dimensional strong symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases from the perspective of quantum anomalies. We first note that they can both be described by the same low-energy effective field theory with the same effective symmetry realizations on low-energy modes, wherein non-on-site lattice translation symmetry is encoded as if it were an internal symmetry. In spite of the identical form of the low-energy effective field theories, we show that the quantum anomalies of the theories play different roles in the two systems. In particular, we find that the chiral anomaly is equivalent to the LSM theorem, whereas there is another anomaly that is not related to the LSM theorem but is intrinsic to the SPT states. As an application, we extend the conventional LSM theorem to multiple-charge multiple-species problems and construct several exotic symmetric insulators. We also find that the (3+1)d chiral anomaly provides only the perturbative stability of the gaplessness local in the parameter space.
Symmetry provides powerful non-perturbative constraints in quantum many-body systems. A prominent example is the Lieb-Schultz-Mattis (LSM) anomaly -- a mixed 't Hooft anomaly between internal and translational symmetries that forbids a trivial symmetric gapped phase. In this work, we investigate lattice translation operators in systems with an LSM anomaly. We construct explicit lattice models in two and three spatial dimensions and show that, after gauging the full internal symmetry, translation becomes non-invertible and fuses into defects of the internal symmetry. The result is supported by the anomaly-inflow in view of topological field theory. Our work extends earlier one-dimensional observations to a unified higher-dimensional framework and clarifies their origin in mixed anomalies and higher-group structures, highlighting a coherent interplay between internal and crystalline symmetries.
We study quantum phases and phase transitions in a one-dimensional interacting fermion system with a Lieb-Schultz-Mattis (LSM) type anomaly. Specifically, the inversion symmetry enforces any symmetry-preserving gapped ground state of the system to be a Kitaev chain, following an LSM type theorem that we prove. Alternatively, via the Jordan-Wigner transformation, this system describes a spin system whose gapped ground states must break either the inversion or the Ising symmetry associated with fermion parity. We obtain a phase diagram using analytical methods and variational matrix product state simulations and study the critical behaviors of the quantum phase transitions therein using entanglement entropy, energy variance, and finite-size scaling of order parameters. In particular, we observe a continuous phase transition between two ordered phases that are beyond the Ginzburg-Landau-Wilson paradigm, in analogy to the deconfined quantum critical points in two spatial dimensions. We show this type of a 1D deconfined quantum critical point is described by the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid theory and extract its Luttinger parameter and critical exponents. We also identify a gapless phase that emerges from a deconfined quantum critical point between two ordered phases, which cannot be described by a U(1) Luttinger liquid.
The celebrated Lieb-Schultz-Mattis theorem excludes a nondegenerate gapped ground state of a spin system with an odd number of s=12s=\frac{1}{2}s=21​ spins per unit cell. Here, the author presents a new family of Lieb-Schultz-Mattis type theorems for fermionic systems that have no analog in spin systems. An example is a particle-hole symmetric system of spinless fermions on a lattice with an odd number of fermionic modes per unit cell. The author shows that a symmetric gapped ground state must be topologically ordered, and the lattice translation symmetries must permute anyon types, resulting in non-Abelian zero modes bound to lattice dislocations. These results can be interpreted as quantum anomalies on the surface of three-dimensional fermionic symmetry-protected phases.