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arXiv:1910.04765

Distilling Fractons from Layered Subsystem-Symmetry Protected Phases

Albert T. Schmitz

Published Oct 10, 2019• 17 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

It is well-known that 3D Type-I fracton models can be obtained from the condensations of stacked layers of 2D anyons. It is less obvious if 3D Type-II fractons can be understood from a similar perspective. In this paper, we affirm that this is the case: we produce the paradigm Type-II fracton model, Haah's cubic code, from a 2D layer construction. However, this is not a condensation of 2D anyons, but rather we start with stacks of 2D subsystem-symmetry protected topological states (SSPT). As this parent model is not topologically ordered in the strict sense, whereas the final state is, we refer to this process as a distillation as we are forming a long-range entangled (LRE) state from several copies of a short-range entangled (SRE) state. We also show that Type-I fracton topological order can also be distilled from SSPT states in the form of the cluster-cube model which we introduce here. We start by introducing the Brillouin-Wigner perturbation theory of distillation. However, a more detailed analysis from which the perturbation theory follows, is also performed using linear gauge structures and an extension we introduce here referred to as gauge substructures. This allows us to rigorously define distillation as well as understand the process of obtaining LRE from SRE. We can diagnose the source of LRE as the distillation of subsystem symmetries into robust long-range ground state degeneracy as characterized by logical operators of the resulting stabilizer code. Furthermore, we find which Hamiltonian terms are necessary for selecting the ground state which results from the perturbation. This leads to a protocol for realizing a fracton quantum error correcting code initialized in a chosen fiducial state using only finite-depth circuits and local measurements.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1910.04765

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It is well-known that 3D Type-I fracton models can be obtained from the condensations of stacked layers of 2D anyons. It is less obvious if 3D Type-II fractons can be understood from a similar perspective. In this paper, we affirm that this is the case: we produce the paradigm Type-II fracton model, Haah's cubic code, from a 2D layer construction. However, this is not a condensation of 2D anyons, but rather we start with stacks of 2D subsystem-symmetry protected topological states (SSPT). As this parent model is not topologically ordered in the strict sense, whereas the final state is, we refer to this process as a distillation as we are forming a long-range entangled (LRE) state from several copies of a short-range entangled (SRE) state. We also show that Type-I fracton topological order can also be distilled from SSPT states in the form of the cluster-cube model which we introduce here. We start by introducing the Brillouin-Wigner perturbation theory of distillation. However, a more detailed analysis from which the perturbation theory follows, is also performed using linear gauge structures and an extension we introduce here referred to as gauge substructures. This allows us to rigorously define distillation as well as understand the process of obtaining LRE from SRE. We can diagnose the source of LRE as the distillation of subsystem symmetries into robust long-range ground state degeneracy as characterized by logical operators of the resulting stabilizer code. Furthermore, we find which Hamiltonian terms are necessary for selecting the ground state which results from the perturbation. This leads to a protocol for realizing a fracton quantum error correcting code initialized in a chosen fiducial state using only finite-depth circuits and local measurements.
A fundamental distinction between many-body quantum states are those with short- and long-range entanglement (SRE and LRE). The latter cannot be created by finite-depth circuits, underscoring the nonlocal nature of Schrödinger cat states, topological order, and quantum criticality. Remarkably, examples are known where LRE is obtained by performing single-site measurements on SRE, such as the toric code from measuring a sublattice of a 2D cluster state. However, a systematic understanding of when and how measurements of SRE give rise to LRE is still lacking. Here, we establish that LRE appears upon performing measurements on symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases—of which the cluster state is one example. For instance, we show how to implement the Kramers-Wannier transformation by adding a cluster SPT to an input state followed by measurement. This transformation naturally relates states with SRE and LRE. An application is the realization of double-semion order when the input state is the Z 2 Levin-Gu SPT. Similarly, the addition of fermionic SPTs and measurement leads to an implementation of the Jordan-Wigner transformation of a general state. More generally, we argue that a large class of SPT phases protected by G × H symmetry gives rise to anomalous LRE upon measuring G -charges, and we prove that this persists for generic points in the SPT phase under certain conditions. Our work introduces a new practical tool for using SPT phases as resources for creating LRE, and we uncover the classification result that all states related by sequentially gauging Abelian groups or by Jordan-Wigner transformation are in the same equivalence class, once we augment finite-depth circuits with single-site measurements. In particular, any topological or fracton order with a solvable finite gauge group can be obtained from a product state in this way. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Coupled layer constructions are a valuable tool for capturing the universal properties of certain interacting quantum phases of matter in terms of the simpler data that characterizes the underlying layers. In the study of fracton phases, the X-Cube model in 3+1D can be realized via such a construction by starting with a stack of 2+1D Toric Codes and turning on a coupling which condenses a composite "particle-string" object. In a recent work [Phys. Rev. B 112, 125124 (2025)], we have demonstrated that in fact, the particle-string can be viewed as a symmetry defect of a topological 1-form symmetry. In this paper, we study the result of gauging this symmetry in depth. We unveil a rich gauging web relating the X-Cube model to symmetry protected topological (SPT) phases protected by a mix of subsystem and higher-form symmetries, subsystem symmetry fractionalization in the 3+1D Toric Code, and non-trivial extensions of topological symmetries by subsystem symmetries. Our work emphasizes the importance of topological symmetries in non-topological, geometric phases of matter.
In this work, we develop a coupled layer construction of fracton topological orders in d=3d=3d=3 spatial dimensions. These topological phases have subextensive topological ground-state degeneracy and possess excitations whose movement is restricted in interesting ways. Our coupled layer approach is used to construct several different fracton topological phases, both from stacked layers of simple d=2d=2d=2 topological phases and from stacks of d=3d=3d=3 fracton topological phases. This perspective allows us to shed light on the physics of the X-cube model recently introduced by Vijay, Haah, and Fu, which we demonstrate can be obtained as the strong-coupling limit of a coupled three-dimensional stack of toric codes. We also construct two new models of fracton topological order: a semionic generalization of the X-cube model, and a model obtained by coupling together four interpenetrating X-cube models, which we dub the `four color cube model''. The couplings considered lead to fracton topological orders via mechanisms we dub ``p-string condensation'' and ``p-membrane condensation'', in which strings or membranes built from particle excitations are driven to condense. This allows the fusion properties, braiding statistics, and ground-state degeneracy of the phases we construct to be easily studied in terms of more familiar degrees of freedom. Our work raises the possibility of studying fracton topological phases from within the framework of topological quantum field theory, which may be useful for obtaining a more complete understanding of such phases.
Topological holography (TH), or SymTFT, realizes symmetries and dualities of a quantum system as boundary data of a topological bulk in one higher dimension. We formulate fracton topological holography (FTH), extending this mechanism from liquid topological orders to fracton stabilizer codes. The construction is organized as a general four-stage framework: prepare the bulk model and compute its excitations, determine boundary data and admissible gapped top boundaries, identify the low-energy preserving operator algebra together with its symmetry, relation, and twist data, and then switch among top boundaries to compare the induced boundary descriptions. As a type-I example, we develop FTH for the X-cube model with smooth and rough top boundaries; for a minimal effective Hamiltonian, both yield transverse-field plaquette Ising models, with exchanged subsystem symmetry and twist data, and the boundary switch is implemented by a linear-depth local unitary sequential quantum circuit (SQC). As a type-II example, we formulate FTH for Haah's cubic code in the Laurent-polynomial stabilizer formalism and analyze the natural (Z)(Z)(Z) and (X)(X)(X) top boundaries, which induce two two-dimensional qubit systems related locally by exchanging generalized plaquette Ising and transverse-field terms and nonlocally by a symmetry--relation duality. These results show that FTH is a genuine extension of TH to both type-I and type-II fracton orders. FTH therefore provides a concrete framework for organizing and understanding duality, with the prospect of offering a systematic route to new dualities.
We introduce hybrid fracton orders: three-dimensional gapped quantum phases that exhibit the phenomenology of both conventional three-dimensional topological orders and fracton orders. Hybrid fracton orders host both (i) mobile topological quasiparticles and loop excitations, as well as (ii) pointlike topological excitations with restricted mobility, with nontrivial fusion rules and mutual braiding statistics between the two sets of excitations. Furthermore, hybrid fracton phases can realize either conventional three-dimensional topological orders or fracton orders after undergoing a phase transition driven by the condensation of certain gapped excitations. Therefore they serve as parent orders for both long-range-entangled quantum liquid and nonliquid phases. We study the detailed properties of hybrid fracton phases through exactly solvable models in which the resulting orders hybridize a three-dimensional Z2{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}Z2​ topological order with (i) the X-cube fracton order or (ii) Haah's code. The hybrid orders presented here can also be understood as the deconfined phase of a gauge theory whose gauge group is given by an Abelian global symmetry GGG and subsystem symmetries of a normal subgroup NNN along lower-dimensional subregions.