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arXiv:2211.12543

Lieb-Schultz-Mattis, Luttinger, and 't Hooft -- anomaly matching in lattice systems

Meng Cheng, Nathan Seiberg B

Published Nov 22, 2022• 17 citations
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Abstract

We analyze lattice Hamiltonian systems whose global symmetries have 't Hooft anomalies. As is common in the study of anomalies, they are probed by coupling the system to classical background gauge fields. For flat fields (vanishing field strength), the nonzero spatial components of the gauge fields can be thought of as twisted boundary conditions, or equivalently, as topological defects. The symmetries of the twisted Hilbert space and their representations capture the anomalies. We demonstrate this approach with a number of examples. In some of them, the anomalous symmetries are internal symmetries of the lattice system, but they do not act on-site. (We clarify the notion of "on-site action.") In other cases, the anomalous symmetries involve lattice translations. Using this approach we frame many known and new results in a unified fashion. In this work, we limit ourselves to 1+1d systems with a spatial lattice. In particular, we present a lattice system that flows to the $c=1$ compact boson system with any radius (no BKT transition) with the full internal symmetry of the continuum theory, with its anomalies and its T-duality. As another application, we analyze various spin chain models and phrase their Lieb-Shultz-Mattis theorem as an 't Hooft anomaly matching condition. We also show in what sense filling constraints like Luttinger theorem can and cannot be viewed as reflecting an anomaly. As a by-product, our understanding allows us to use information from the continuum theory to derive some exact results in lattice model of interest, such as the lattice momenta of the low-energy states.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2211.12543

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We analyze lattice Hamiltonian systems whose global symmetries have 't Hooft anomalies. As is common in the study of anomalies, they are probed by coupling the system to classical background gauge fields. For flat fields (vanishing field strength), the nonzero spatial components of the gauge fields can be thought of as twisted boundary conditions, or equivalently, as topological defects. The symmetries of the twisted Hilbert space and their representations capture the anomalies. We demonstrate this approach with a number of examples. In some of them, the anomalous symmetries are internal symmetries of the lattice system, but they do not act on-site. (We clarify the notion of "on-site action.") In other cases, the anomalous symmetries involve lattice translations. Using this approach we frame many known and new results in a unified fashion. In this work, we limit ourselves to 1+1d systems with a spatial lattice. In particular, we present a lattice system that flows to the c=1c=1c=1 compact boson system with any radius (no BKT transition) with the full internal symmetry of the continuum theory, with its anomalies and its T-duality. As another application, we analyze various spin chain models and phrase their Lieb-Shultz-Mattis theorem as an 't Hooft anomaly matching condition. We also show in what sense filling constraints like Luttinger theorem can and cannot be viewed as reflecting an anomaly. As a by-product, our understanding allows us to use information from the continuum theory to derive some exact results in lattice model of interest, such as the lattice momenta of the low-energy states.
We analyze lattice Hamiltonian systems whose global symmetries have ’t Hooft anomalies. As is common in the study of anomalies, they are probed by coupling the system to classical background gauge fields. For flat fields (vanishing field strength), the nonzero spatial components of the gauge fields can be thought of as twisted boundary conditions, or equivalently, as topological defects. The symmetries of the twisted Hilbert space and their representations capture the anomalies. We demonstrate this approach with a number of examples. In some of them, the anomalous symmetries are internal symmetries of the lattice system, but they do not act on-site. (We clarify the notion of “on-site action.”) In other cases, the anomalous symmetries involve lattice translations. Using this approach we frame many known and new results in a unified fashion. In this work, we limit ourselves to 1+1d systems with a spatial lattice. In particular, we present a lattice system that flows to the c=1 c = 1 compact boson system with any radius (no BKT transition) with the full internal symmetry of the continuum theory, with its anomalies and its T-duality. As another application, we analyze various spin chain models and phrase their Lieb-Shultz-Mattis theorem as an ’t Hooft anomaly matching condition. We also show in what sense filling constraints like Luttinger theorem can and cannot be viewed as reflecting an anomaly. As a by-product, our understanding allows us to use information from the continuum theory to derive some exact results in lattice model of interest, such as the lattice momenta of the low-energy states.
't Hooft anomalies impose fundamental constraints on quantum matter and often lead to emergent symmetry structures upon gauging. We analyze a lattice model with four global symmetries realizing a mixed anomaly described by ∼a1∧a2∧a3∧a4\sim a_1\wedge a_2\wedge a_3\wedge a_4∼a1​∧a2​∧a3​∧a4​, where the aia_iai​ denote background gauge fields for the global symmetries. Through explicit lattice gauging, we demonstrate the emergence of higher symmetry structures, including 2-group, non-invertible, and higher fusion categorical symmetries. We also provide a field-theoretical understanding of these results. Applying this framework to systems with Lieb-Schultz-Mattis anomalies, obtained by promoting part of the internal symmetries to translational symmetries, we demonstrate that modulated (dipole) symmetries arise as direct counterparts of those in systems with purely internal typeIV anomalies. Importantly, we uncover a qualitatively new feature absent in previously studied modulated symmetries: their realization can become intrinsically defect-dependent. In particular, the emergent symmetry structure changes depending on whether symmetry defects are present. This work establishes a concrete lattice realization of mixed anomalies and reveals a rich structure of emergent symmetries, thereby clarifying their role in constraining quantum phases of matter.
We study ’t Hooft anomalies of global symmetries in 1+1d lattice Hamiltonian systems. We consider anomalies in internal and lattice translation symmetries. We derive a microscopic formula for the “anomaly cocycle” using topological defects implementing twisted boundary conditions. The anomaly takes value in the cohomology group H^3(G,U(1)) × H^2(G,U(1)) H 3 ( G , U ( 1 ) ) × H 2 ( G , U ( 1 ) ) . The first factor captures the anomaly in the internal symmetry group G, and the second factor corresponds to a generalized Lieb-Schultz-Mattis anomaly involving G and lattice translation. We present a systematic procedure to gauge internal symmetries (that may not act on-site) on the lattice. We show that the anomaly cocycle is the obstruction to gauging the internal symmetry while preserving the lattice translation symmetry. As an application, we construct anomaly-free chiral lattice gauge theories. We demonstrate a one-to-one correspondence between (locality-preserving) symmetry operators and topological defects, which is essential for the results we prove. We also discuss the generalization to fermionic theories. Finally, we construct non-invertible lattice translation symmetries by gauging internal symmetries with a Lieb-Schultz-Mattis anomaly.
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.
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.