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arXiv:2206.11958 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Foliated order parameter in a fracton phase transition

Mohammad Hossein Zarei, Mohammad Reza Nobakht

Published Jul 1, 2022• 5 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Finding suitable indicators for characterizing quantum phase transitions plays an important role in understanding different phases of matter. It is especially important for fracton phases where a combination of topology and fractionalization leads to exotic features not seen in other known quantum phases. In this paper, we consider the above problem by studying phase transition in the X-cube model in the presence of a nonlinear perturbation. Using an analysis of the ground state fidelity and identifying a discontinuity in the global entanglement, we show there is a first-order quantum phase transition from a type-I fracton phase with a highly entangled nature to a magnetized phase. Accordingly, we conclude that the global entanglement, as a measure of the total quantum correlations in the ground state, can well capture certain features of fracton phase transitions. Then, we introduce a nonlocal order parameter in the form of a foliated operator which can characterize the above phase transition. We particularly show that such an order parameter has a geometric nature which captures specific differences of fracton phases with topological phases. Our study is specifically based on a well-known dual mapping to the classical plaquette Ising model where it shows the importance of such dualities in studying different quantum phases of matter.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.106.035101

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Finding suitable indicators for characterizing quantum phase transitions plays an important role in understanding different phases of matter. It is especially important for fracton phases where a combination of topology and fractionalization leads to exotic features not seen in other known quantum phases. In this paper, we consider the above problem by studying phase transition in the X-cube model in the presence of a nonlinear perturbation. Using an analysis of the ground state fidelity and identifying a discontinuity in the global entanglement, we show there is a first-order quantum phase transition from a type-I fracton phase with a highly entangled nature to a magnetized phase. Accordingly, we conclude that the global entanglement, as a measure of the total quantum correlations in the ground state, can well capture certain features of fracton phase transitions. Then, we introduce a nonlocal order parameter in the form of a foliated operator which can characterize the above phase transition. We particularly show that such an order parameter has a geometric nature which captures specific differences of fracton phases with topological phases. Our study is specifically based on a well-known dual mapping to the classical plaquette Ising model where it shows the importance of such dualities in studying different quantum phases of matter.
Gapped fracton phases of matter generalize the concept of topological order and broaden our fundamental understanding of entanglement in quantum many-body systems. However, their analytical or numerical description beyond exactly solvable models remains a formidable challenge. Here we employ an exact 3D quantum tensor-network approach that allows us to study a Z_{N} generalization of the prototypical X cube fracton model and its quantum phase transitions between distinct topological states via fully tractable wave function deformations. We map the (deformed) quantum states exactly to a combination of a classical lattice gauge theory and a plaquette clock model, and employ numerical techniques to calculate various entanglement order parameters. For the Z_{N} model we find a family of (weakly) first-order fracton confinement transitions that in the limit of N→∞ converge to a continuous phase transition beyond the Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson paradigm. We also discover a line of 3D conformal quantum critical points (with critical magnetic flux loop fluctuations) which, in the N→∞ limit, appears to coexist with a gapless deconfined fracton state.
Fracton topological order (FTO) is a new classification of correlated phases in three spatial dimensions with topological ground-state degeneracy (GSD) scaling up with system size and fractional excitations which are immobile or have restricted mobility. With the topological origin of GSD, FTO is immune to local perturbations, whereas a strong enough global external perturbation is expected to break the order. The critical point of the topological transition is either characterized by the broken GSD or the appearance of topologically distinct states with lower energy. In this work, we propose to characterize quantum phase transition of the type-I FTOs induced by external terms, when the transition can be characterized by the breaking down of GSD, and develop a theory to study analytically the critical points. In particular, for the external perturbation term creating lineon-type excitations, we predict a generic formula for the point of the quantum phase transition, characterized by the breaking down of GSD. This theory applies to a board class of FTOs, including X-cube model, and for more generic FTO models under perturbations creating two-dimensional (2D) or 3D excitations, we predict the upper and lower limits of the critical point. Our work makes a step in characterizing analytically the quantum phase transition of generic fracton orders.
A useful approach to characterize and identify quantum phase transitions lies in the concept of multipartite entanglement. In this paper, we consider well-known measures of multipartite (global) entanglement, i.e., average linear entropy of one-qubit and two-qubit reduced density matrices, in order to study topological quantum phase transition (TQPT) in the Kitaev Toric code Hamiltonian with a nonlinear perturbation. We provide an exact mapping from aforementioned measures in the above model to internal energy and energy-energy correlations in the classical Ising model. Accordingly, we find that the global entanglement shows a continuous and sharp transition from a maximum value in the topological phase to zero in the magnetized phase in a sense that its first-order derivative diverges at the transition point. In this regard, we conclude that not only can the global entanglement serve as a reasonable tool to probe quantum criticality at TQPTs, but it also can reveal the highly entangled nature of topological phases. Furthermore, we also introduce a conditional version of global entanglement which becomes maximum at the critical point. Therefore, regarding a general expectation that multipartite entanglement reaches maximum value at the critical point of quantum many-body systems, our result proposes that the conditional global entanglement can be a good measure of multipartite entanglement in TQPTs.
Fracton topological order describes a remarkable phase of matter, which can be characterized by fracton excitations with constrained dynamics and a ground-state degeneracy that increases exponentially with the length of the system on a three-dimensional torus. However, previous models exhibiting this order require many-spin interactions, which may be very difficult to realize in a real material or cold atom system. In this work, we present a more physically realistic model which has the so-called X-cube fracton topological order [Vijay, Haah, and Fu, Phys. Rev. B 94, 235157 (2016)] but only requires nearest-neighbor two-spin interactions. The model lives on a three-dimensional honeycomb-based lattice with one to two spin-1/2 degrees of freedom on each site and a unit cell of six sites. The model is constructed from two orthogonal stacks of Z2{Z}_{2}Z2​ topologically ordered Kitaev honeycomb layers [Kitaev, Ann. Phys.321, 2 (2006)], which are coupled together by a two-spin interaction. It is also shown that a four-spin interaction can be included to instead stabilize 3+1D Z2{Z}_{2}Z2​ topological order. We also find dual descriptions of four quantum phase transitions in our model, all of which appear to be discontinuous first-order transitions.
In the study of three-dimensional gapped models, two-dimensional gapped states should be considered as a free resource. This is the basic idea underlying the notion of ``foliated fracton order'' proposed in Shirley et al. [Phys. Rev. X 8, 031051 (2018)]. We have found that many of the known type-I fracton models, although they appear very different, have the same foliated fracton order, known as ``X-cube'' order. In this paper, we identify three-dimensional fracton models with different kinds of foliated fracton order. Whereas the X-cube order corresponds to the gauge theory of a simple paramagnet with subsystem planar symmetry, the different orders correspond to twisted versions of the gauge theory for which the system prior to gauging has nontrivial order protected by the planar subsystem symmetry. We present constructions of the twisted models and demonstrate that they possess nontrivial order by studying their fractional excitation contents.
Fracton models exhibit a variety of exotic properties and lie beyond the conventional framework of gapped topological order. In , we generalized the notion of gapped phase to one of foliated fracton phase by allowing the addition of layers of gapped two-dimensional resources in the adiabatic evolution between gapped three-dimensional models. Moreover, we showed that the X-cube model is a fixed point of one such phase. In this paper, according to this definition, we look for universal properties of such phases which remain invariant throughout the entire phase. We propose multi-partite entanglement quantities, generalizing the proposal of topological entanglement entropy designed for conventional topological phases. We present arguments for the universality of these quantities and show that they attain non-zero constant value in non-trivial foliated fracton phases.