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arXiv:2102.02941

Invertible phases for mixed spatial symmetries and the fermionic crystalline equivalence principle

Arun Debray

Published Feb 5, 2021• 8 citations
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Abstract

Freed-Hopkins give a mathematical ansatz for classifying gapped invertible phases of matter with a spatial symmetry in terms of Borel-equivariant generalized homology. We propose a slight generalization of this ansatz to account for cases where the symmetry type mixes nontrivially with the spatial symmetry, such as crystalline phases with spin-1/2 fermions. From this ansatz, we prove as a theorem a "fermionic crystalline equivalence principle," as predicted in the physics literature. Using this and the Adams spectral sequence, we compute classifications of some classes of phases with a point group symmetry; in cases where these phases have been studied by other methods, our results agree with the literature.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2102.02941

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Interacting crystalline SPT phases were first classified by Thorngren and Else through the crystalline equivalence principle, suggesting that a spatial group symmetry can be treated as if it were an internal symmetry group. Using techniques from topology, we elucidate how this principle holds for one of the proposals for the interacting bosonic case and yet fails for weak free-fermion phases. Lastly, we show how a variant of the principle does hold for strong crystalline free-fermion phases, showing that it is not necessary for the cohomology theory to be of Borel type.
Abstract We propose that symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases with crystalline symmetry are formulated by an equivariant generalized homology hnG(X)h^G_n(X)hnG​(X) over a real space manifold X with G a crystalline symmetry group. The Atiyah–Hirzebruch spectral sequence unifies various notions in crystalline SPT phases, such as the layer construction, higher-order SPT phases, and Lieb–Schultz–Mattis-type theorems. This formulation is applicable to not only free fermionic systems but also interacting systems with arbitrary onsite and crystal symmetries.
We explore one-dimensional fermionic symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases related by the crystalline equivalence principle. In particular, we study charge-conserving many-body topological phases of fermions protected respectively by chiral and reflection symmetries. While the classifications of the two crystalline-equivalent SPT phases are identical, their topological properties and phase structures can be very different, depending on the microscopic details. Specifically, we consider certain extensions of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model, with and without interactions, that preserve both chiral and reflection symmetries, and explicitly compute the many-body topological invariants based on the systems' ground states. The phase structures determined by these topological invariants align perfectly with the many-body spectra of deformations among the models. As expected, gapped deformations exist only when all the topological invariants remain unchanged. Moreover, we show that decomposable systems -- those that can be decomposed into local and decoupled subsystems -- can be topologically characterized by real-space quantum numbers directly associated with the symmetries. For reflection-symmetric systems, these quantum numbers are related to the many-body topological invariants via a bulk-center correspondence, which can be justified using the Atiyah-Hirzebruch spectral sequence in generalized homology theory. Finally, we discuss the role of transition symmetry in the many-body topologies of these SPT phases.
We propose a general formula for the group of invertible topological phases on a space YYY, possibly equipped with the action of a group GGG. Our formula applies to arbitrary symmetry types. When YYY is Euclidean space and GGG a crystallographic group, the term `topological crystalline phases' is sometimes used for these phases of matter.
Integer quantum Hall states and their generalization to topological insulators and superconductors are paradigmatic examples of invertible fermionic topological states of matter. Here, the authors develop a comprehensive characterization and classification of invertible fermionic topological phases of matter in two spatial dimensions for general symmetry groups. The results are nonperturbative and apply to strongly interacting systems. In particular, they extend previous classification results to account for the possible chiral nature of invertible phases.