Topological order, the hallmark of fractional quantum Hall states, is primarily defined in terms of ground-state degeneracy on higher-genus manifolds, e.g., the torus. We investigate analytically and numerically the smooth crossover between this topological regime and the Tao-Thouless thin torus quasi-one-dimensional (1D) limit. Using the wire-construction approach, we analyze an emergent charge density wave (CDW) signifying the breakdown of topological order, and relate its phase shifts to Wilson loop operators. The CDW amplitude decreases exponentially with the torus circumference once it exceeds the transverse correlation length controllable by the interwire coupling. By means of numerical simulations based on the matrix product states (MPS) formalism, we explore the extreme quasi-1D limit in a two-leg flux ladder and present a simple recipe for probing fractional charge excitations in the $\ensuremath{\nu}=1/2$ Laughlin-like state of hard-core bosons. We discuss the possibility of realizing this construction in cold-atom experiments. We also address the implications of our findings to the possibility of producing non-Abelian zero modes. As known from rigorous no-go theorems, topological protection for exotic zero modes such as parafermions cannot exist in 1D fermionic systems and the associated degeneracy cannot be robust. Our theory of the 1D--2D crossover allows us to calculate the splitting of the degeneracy, which vanishes exponentially with the number of wires, similarly to the CDW amplitude.
Topological order, the hallmark of fractional quantum Hall states, is primarily defined in terms of ground-state degeneracy on higher-genus manifolds, e.g., the torus. We investigate analytically and numerically the smooth crossover between this topological regime and the Tao-Thouless thin torus quasi-one-dimensional (1D) limit. Using the wire-construction approach, we analyze an emergent charge density wave (CDW) signifying the breakdown of topological order, and relate its phase shifts to Wilson loop operators. The CDW amplitude decreases exponentially with the torus circumference once it exceeds the transverse correlation length controllable by the interwire coupling. By means of numerical simulations based on the matrix product states (MPS) formalism, we explore the extreme quasi-1D limit in a two-leg flux ladder and present a simple recipe for probing fractional charge excitations in the \ensuremathν=1/2 Laughlin-like state of hard-core bosons. We discuss the possibility of realizing this construction in cold-atom experiments. We also address the implications of our findings to the possibility of producing non-Abelian zero modes. As known from rigorous no-go theorems, topological protection for exotic zero modes such as parafermions cannot exist in 1D fermionic systems and the associated degeneracy cannot be robust. Our theory of the 1D--2D crossover allows us to calculate the splitting of the degeneracy, which vanishes exponentially with the number of wires, similarly to the CDW amplitude.
Topological states of interacting many-body systems are at the focus of current research due to the exotic properties of their elementary excitations. In this paper we suggest a realistic experimental setup for the realization of a simple version of such a phase. We show how $\ensuremath{\delta}$-interacting bosons hopping on the links of a one-dimensional ladder can be used to simulate the thin-torus limit of the two-dimensional (2D) Hofstadter-Hubbard model at one-quarter magnetic flux per plaquette. Bosons can be confined to ladders by optical superlattices, and synthetic magnetic fields can be realized by laser-assisted tunneling. We show that twisted boundary conditions can be implemented, enabling the realization of a fractionally quantized Thouless pump. Using numerical density-matrix-renormalization-group calculations, we show that the ground state of our model is an incompressible symmetry-protected topological charge density wave phase at average filling $\ensuremath{\rho}=1/8$ per lattice site, related to the 1/2 Laughlin-type state of the corresponding 2D model.
The fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE), now entering it's fourth decade, continues to draw attention from the condensed matter community. New experiments in recent years are raising hopes that it will be possible to observe quasi-particles with non-abelian anyonic statistics. These particles could form the building blocks of a quantum computer.The quantum Hall states have topologically protected energy gaps to the low-lying set of excitations. This topological order is not a locally measurable quantity but rather a non-local object, and it is one of the keys to it's stability. From an early stage understanding of the FQHE has been facilitate by constructing trial wave functions. The topological classification of these wave functions have given further insight to the nature of the FQHE.An early, and successful, wave function construction for filling fractions ν=p/(2p+1) was that of composite fermions on planar and spherical geometries. Recently, new developments using conformal field theory have made it possible to also construct the full Haldane-Halperin hierarchy wave functions on planar and spherical geometries. In this thesis we extend this construction to a toroidal geometry, i.e. a flat surface with periodic boundary conditions.One of the defining features of topological states of matter in two dimensions is that the ground state is not unique on surfaces with non trivial topology, such as a torus. The archetypical example is the fractional quantum Hall effect, where a state at filling fraction ν=p/q, has at least a q-fold degeneracy on a torus. This has been shown explicitly for a few cases, such as the Laughlin states and the the Moore-Read states, by explicit construction of candidate electron wave functions with good overlap with numerically found states. In this thesis, we construct explicit torus wave functions for a large class of experimentally important quantum liquids, namely the chiral hierarchy states in the lowest Landau level. These states, which includes the prominently observed positive Jain sequence at filling fractions ν=p/(2p+1), are characterized by having boundary modes with only one chirality.Our construction relies heavily on previous work that expressed the hierarchy wave functions on a plane or a sphere in terms of correlation functions in a conformal field theory. This construction can be taken over to the torus when care is taken to ensure correct behaviour under the modular transformations that leave the geometry of the torus unchanged. Our construction solves the long standing problem of engineering torus wave functions for multi-component many-body states. Since the resulting expressions are rather complicated, we have carefully compared the simplest example, that of ν=2/5, with numerically found wave functions. We have found an extremely good overlap for arbitrary values of the modular parameter τ, that describes the geometry of the torus.Having explicit torus wave functions allows us to use the methods developed by Read and Read \& Rezayi to numerically compute the quantum Hall viscosity. Hall viscosity is conjectured to be a topologically protected macroscopic transport coefficient characterizing the quantum Hall state. It is related to the shift of the same QH-fluid when it is put on a sphere. The good agreement with the theoretical prediction for the 2/5 state strongly suggests that our wave functions encodes all relevant topologically information.We also consider the Hall viscosity in the limit of a very thin torus. There we find that the viscosity changes as we approach the thin torus limit. Because of this we study the Laughlin state in that limit and see how the change in viscosity arises from a change in the Hamiltonian hopping elements. Finally we conclude that there are both qualitative and quantitative difference between the thin and the square torus. Thus, one has to be careful when interpreting results in the thin torus limit.
We analytically and numerically analyze the one-dimensional "thin-torus" limit of Fractional Topological Insulators in a series of simple models exhibiting exactly flat bands with local hopping. These models are the one-dimensional limit of two dimensional Chern Insulators, and the Hubbard-type interactions projected into their lowest band take particularly simple forms. By exactly solving the many-body interacting spectrum of these models, we show that, just like in the Fractional Quantum Hall effect, the zero modes of the thin-torus limit are CDW states of occupation numbers satisfying generalized Pauli principles. As opposed to the FQH where the thin-torus CDW appear in orbital space, in the thin-torus FCI states, the CDW states are in real-space. We show the counting of the quasihole excitations in the energy spectrum cannot distinguish between a CDW state and a FQH state. However, by exactly computing the entanglement spectrum for the thin-torus states, we show that it can qualitatively and quantitatively distinguish between a CDW and a fractional topological state such as the FCI. We then discover a previously unknown separation of energy scales of the full FQH energy spectrum in the thin torus limit and find that Chern insulator models exhibiting strong isotropic FCI states have a similar structure in their thin-torus limit spectrum. We close by numerically computing the evolution of energy and entanglement spectra from the thin-torus to the isotropic limit. Our results can also be interpreted as an analysis of one-body, 1-dimensional topological insulators stabilized by inversion symmetry in the presence of interactions.
The fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE), now entering it's fourth decade, continues to draw attention from the condensed matter community. New experiments in recent years are raising hopes that it will be possible to observe quasi-particles with non-abelian anyonic statistics. These particles could form the building blocks of a quantum computer. The quantum Hall states have topologically protected energy gaps to the low-lying set of excitations. This topological order is not a locally measurable quantity but rather a non-local object, and it is one of the keys to it's stability. From an early stage understanding of the FQHE has been facilitate by constructing trial wave functions. The topological classification of these wave functions have given further insight to the nature of the FQHE. An early, and successful, wave function construction for filling fractions ν=p/(2p+1) was that of composite fermions on planar and spherical geometries. Recently, new developments using conformal field theory have made it possible to also construct the full Haldane-Halperin hierarchy wave functions on planar and spherical geometries. In this thesis we extend this construction to a toroidal geometry, i.e. a flat surface with periodic boundary conditions. One of the defining features of topological states of matter in two dimensions is that the ground state is not unique on surfaces with non trivial topology, such as a torus. The archetypical example is the fractional quantum Hall effect, where a state at filling fraction ν=p/q, has at least a q-fold degeneracy on a torus. This has been shown explicitly for a few cases, such as the Laughlin states and the the Moore-Read states, by explicit construction of candidate electron wave functions with good overlap with numerically found states. In this thesis, we construct explicit torus wave functions for a large class of experimentally important quantum liquids, namely the chiral hierarchy states in the lowest Landau level. These states, which includes the prominently observed positive Jain sequence at filling fractions ν=p/(2p+1), are characterized by having boundary modes with only one chirality. Our construction relies heavily on previous work that expressed the hierarchy wave functions on a plane or a sphere in terms of correlation functions in a conformal field theory. This construction can be taken over to the torus when care is taken to ensure correct behaviour under the modular transformations that leave the geometry of the torus unchanged. Our construction solves the long standing problem of engineering torus wave functions for multi-component many-body states. Since the resulting expressions are rather complicated, we have carefully compared the simplest example, that of ν=2/5, with numerically found wave functions. We have found an extremely good overlap for arbitrary values of the modular parameter τ, that describes the geometry of the torus. Having explicit torus wave functions allows us to use the methods developed by Read and Read \\& Rezayi to numerically compute the quantum Hall viscosity. Hall viscosity is conjectured to be a topologically protected macroscopic transport coefficient characterizing the quantum Hall state. It is related to the shift of the same QH-fluid when it is put on a sphere. The good agreement with the theoretical prediction for the 2/5 state strongly suggests that our wave functions encodes all relevant topologically information. We also consider the Hall viscosity in the limit of a very thin torus. There we find that the viscosity changes as we approach the thin torus limit. Because of this we study the Laughlin state in that limit and see how the change in viscosity arises from a change in the Hamiltonian hopping elements. Finally we conclude that there are both qualitative and quantitative difference between the thin and the square torus. Thus, one has to be careful when interpreting results in the thin torus limit.
There has been significant recent interest in the potential exotic properties of multichannel Kondo lattices and their connection to quantum materials, but the strongly coupled nature of these models has posed challenges to theoretical investigations. We study the emergence of topological order in a two-dimensional two-channel Kondo lattice (2CKL) in a time-reversal symmetry-broken channel symmetric phase using a coupled-wire construction from one-dimensional (1D) 2CKLs. Through bosonization and symmetry analysis, we show that away from particle-hole symmetry, the 1D 2CKL model flows to an infrared fixed point with an emergent $\mathrm{SO}(3,1)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}\mathrm{SU}(2)$ symmetry and a Z2 gauge structure. Interwire couplings induce a transition to a topologically ordered metallic state characterized by fractionalized excitations and eightfold ground state degeneracy on a torus. Our findings connect impurity-based non-Fermi-liquid behavior to lattice topological order, with potential implications for quantum materials and topological quantum computation.
This thesis explores multiple ways of nudging quantum matter over the edge of topological order and is divided into two parts. The first part offers an overview of the theoretical foundations for the original results presented in the second part. These results first focus on non-standard dynamical paths between trivial and topological phases with applications to adiabatic state preparation in atomic quantum simulators. We commence with the adiabatic preparation of a fractional Chern insulator from a one-dimensional charge density wave. To achieve this, we show analytically how an anisotropy of the hopping amplitudes can effectively change the aspect ratio of the system and induce a so-called ``thin-torus'' limit. The analytical results are corroborated using numerical exact diagonalization. Subsequently, we investigate the adiabatic preparation of a number-conserving Majorana phase protected by a parity symmetry that emerges at a critical point of a two-leg ladder subject to a pair-hopping interaction. For this purpose, we design a symmetry-breaking flux term that can gap out the critical target state and devise a protocol that ramps down the flux term with a power law adapted to system size so as to enable an optimal (linear) scaling of preparation time. To design the flux term, we treat the system in the framework of constructive bosonization. The results are supported numerically using matrix product state techniques to calculate excitation gaps, correlation functions, and time evolutions. Then, we shift the focus to the identification of minimal requirements for topological effects and demonstrate how an integer quantum Hall phase can form in a topologically completely trivial band structure at the onset of disorder. These results are confirmed through extensive numerical simulations with the software package Kwant. Finally, we investigate a Floquet system in an anomalous topological phase that is subjected to nonlinear effects. Specifically, we demonstrate a nonlinearity induced scattering of an edge state off a circulating bulk mode by calculating the exact dynamics of the system through a numerical solution of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation. Notably, we find that the scattering amplitude is determined by interference effects between the two pulses and therefore highly sensitive to their initial relative phase.