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arXiv:2403.09287 · SciPost Physics Core

Duality and hidden symmetry breaking in the q-deformed Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki model

Tyler Franke, Thomas Quella

Published Dec 2, 2024• 3 citations
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Abstract

We revisit the question of string order and hidden symmetry breaking in the q q -deformed AKLT model, an example of a spin chain that possesses generalized symmetry. We first argue that the non-local Kennedy-Tasaki duality transformation that was previously proposed to relate the string order to a local order parameter leads to a non-local Hamiltonian and thus does not provide a physically adequate description of the symmetry breaking. We then present a modified non-local transformation which is based on a recently developed generalization of Witten’s Conjugation to frustration-free lattice models and capable of resolving this issue.

DOI
10.21468/scipostphyscore.7.4.078

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We revisit the question of string order and hidden symmetry breaking in the q q -deformed AKLT model, an example of a spin chain that possesses generalized symmetry. We first argue that the non-local Kennedy-Tasaki duality transformation that was previously proposed to relate the string order to a local order parameter leads to a non-local Hamiltonian and thus does not provide a physically adequate description of the symmetry breaking. We then present a modified non-local transformation which is based on a recently developed generalization of Witten’s Conjugation to frustration-free lattice models and capable of resolving this issue.
We extend the hidden symmetry breaking picture, first proposed by Kennedy and Tasaki in the context of the Haldane phase, to a wider class of symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases. We construct a generalization of the Kennedy-Tasaki transformation that transforms SPT phases into symmetry-breaking phases and relates long-range order in the latter to the more subtle “string order” in the former. In doing so we directly connect the form of the Kennedy-Tasaki transformation to the modern formulation of SPT order. We apply our generalized Kennedy-Tasaki transformation to solve the following problem in quantum information theory. We consider the 2-D cluster state, a simple “toy model” of a locally interacting system whose ground state is a universal resource for MBQC. We prove that, in the presence of a perturbation to the interaction Hamiltonian, the perturbed ground state remains a universal resource. We do this by using the generalized Kennedy-Tasaki transformation to prove that, if we employ the techniques of fault-tolerant quantum computation, the ground states of models in an appropriate SPT phases can serve as universal resources for MBQC provided that the symmetry-breaking is sufficiently strong in the symmetry-breaking phase obtained through the generalized Kennedy-Tasaki transformation.
Symmetry-protected topological phases are defined and classified in reference to symmetries that are described by groups. The author argues that there exist such phases that are not captured by this classification. To support this claim a qqq-deformation of the Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki model is discussed, which exhibits quantum group and duality-type symmetries but breaks all standard group symmetries known to protect the Haldane phase. Its nontrivial topology is linked to a twofold degeneracy in a suitably deformed notion of entanglement spectrum.
We generalize the hidden symmetry-breaking picture of symmetry-protected topological (SPT) order developed by Kennedy and Tasaki in the context of the Haldane phase. Our generalization applies to a wide class of SPT phases in one-dimensional spin chains, protected by an on-site representation of a finite Abelian group. This generalization takes the form of a nonlocal unitary map that relates local symmetry-respecting Hamiltonians in an SPT phase to local Hamiltonians in a symmetry-broken phase. Using this unitary, we establish a relation between the two-point correlation functions that characterize fully symmetry-broken phases with the string-order correlation functions that characterize the SPT phases, therefore establishing the perspective in these systems that SPT phases are characterized by hidden symmetry breaking. Our generalization is also applied to systems with continuous symmetries, including SO(2k+1)\mathrm{SO}(2k+1)SO(2k+1) and SU(k)\mathrm{SU}(k)SU(k).
This paper introduces a hidden quantum Markov models (HQMMs) framework to the Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki (AKLT) state-a cornerstone example of a symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phase. The model's observation system is the physical spin-1 chain, which emerges from a hidden spin-1/2 layer through well-defined quantum emission operation. We show that the underlying Markov dynamics caputure maximal entanglement through the use of significant channels relevant to the AKLT state. We also show that SPT order induces a covariance on the observation decoding channels. This establishes an additional bridge between the quantum Machine learning and many-body physics, with promising implication in topological order and quantum information.
The author studies integer S>1 spin chains. He extends the Kennedy-Tasaki nonlocal unitary transformation for S=1 to arbitrary integer S. He shows the main results of Kennedy and Tasaki (1992) are maintained for S>1: Heisenberg-type Hamiltonians are transformed to Hamiltonians of nearest-neighbour interactions with Z 2 *Z 2 symmetry, and the den Nijs-Rommelse string observables are transformed to the ferromagnetic correlation observables. He asserts that in general values of integer S there exist several phases with the hidden Z 2 *Z 2 symmetry breaking. The den Nijs-Rommelse string order parameters, which measure the hidden Z 2 *Z 2 symmetry breaking, are calculated explicitly for several variants of the VBS-type states. In the standard VBS state, the hidden Z 2 *Z 2 symmetry breaks down when S is odd but remains unbroken when S is even. His results for partially dimerized VBS states suggest that the hidden Z 2 *Z 2 symmetry breaking can be used to detect the successive dimerization transitions predicted by Affleck and Haldane (1987). Some new anisotropic VBS-type states are investigated. The result suggests that there are successive phase transitions when he increases the uniaxial anisotropy in a Heisenberg-type model. Other new VBS-type states with long-range order are considered, and their relevance to the phase diagram of the Heisenberg XXZ model and the magnetization process of antiferromagnets is investigated. He introduces an extended string order parameter which possesses a characteristic behavior in the partially dimerized VBS states.
We study S=1 quantum spin systems on the infinite chain with short ranged Hamiltonians that have a certain rotational and discrete symmetry. We define a Z_{2} index for any gapped unique ground state, and prove that it is invariant under a smooth deformation. By using the index, we provide the first rigorous proof of the existence of a "topological" phase transition, which cannot be characterized by any conventional order parameters, between the Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki (AKLT) model and trivial models. This rigorously establishes that the AKLT model is in a nontrivial symmetry protected topological phase.