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arXiv:2405.18481

Pristine and Pseudo-gapped Boundaries of the Deconfined Quantum Critical Points

Nayan E. Myerson-Jain, Xiao-Chuan Wu, Cenke Xu

Published May 28, 2024• 0 citations
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Abstract

Bulk topology and criticality can both lead to nontrivial boundary effects. Topological orders are often characterized by their robust edge states, while bulk critical points can have different boundary scalings governed by boundary conditions. The interplay between these two different boundary effects is an intriguing problem. The boundary of the deconfined quantum critical point (DQCP) is the ideal platform for the interplay of the two boundary effects, as the DQCP is also an intrinsically gapless symmetry protected topological (igSPT) state. In this work we discuss the boundary of several analogues of the DQCP. We demonstrate that the fluctuation of the bulk order parameters and their various boundary conditions lead to a rich possibility of the edge states, including a "pseudogap" (or super power-law decay) behavior. We also discuss the quantum information perspective of our work, i.e. the implication of our results on DQCP under weak-measurement. Weak-measurement followed by post-selection can change the boundary condition at the temporal boundary in the path-integral representation of a density matrix, which will lead to different behaviors of the "strange correlator".

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2405.18481

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Bulk topology and criticality can both lead to nontrivial boundary effects. Topological orders are often characterized by their robust edge states, while bulk critical points can have different boundary scalings governed by boundary conditions. The interplay between these two different boundary effects is an intriguing problem. The boundary of the deconfined quantum critical point (DQCP) is the ideal platform for the interplay of the two boundary effects, as the DQCP is also an intrinsically gapless symmetry protected topological (igSPT) state. In this work we discuss the boundary of several analogues of the DQCP. We demonstrate that the fluctuation of the bulk order parameters and their various boundary conditions lead to a rich possibility of the edge states, including a "pseudogap" (or super power-law decay) behavior. We also discuss the quantum information perspective of our work, i.e. the implication of our results on DQCP under weak-measurement. Weak-measurement followed by post-selection can change the boundary condition at the temporal boundary in the path-integral representation of a density matrix, which will lead to different behaviors of the "strange correlator".
Bulk topology and criticality can each give rise to nontrivial boundary phenomena. This work shows that their interplay, at unconventional quantum critical points between a quantum spin Hall insulator and a superconductor, produces an unexpectedly rich landscape of edge states. In addition to the usual quantum spin Hall edge modes, the authors identify novel ``pseudogapped'' chiral fermions, characterized by a strongly suppressed spectral function and super--power-law decay of the Green's function.
We study the interplay between two nontrivial boundary effects: (1) the two-dimensional (2d2d2d) edge states of three-dimensional (3d3d3d) strongly interacting bosonic symmetry-protected topological states, and (2) the boundary fluctuations of 3d3d3d bulk disorder-to-order phase transitions. We then generalize our study to 2d2d2d gapless states localized at an interface embedded in a 3d3d3d bulk, when the bulk undergoes a quantum phase transition. Our study is based on generic long-wavelength descriptions of these systems and controlled analytic calculations. Our results are summarized as follows: (i) The edge state of a prototype bosonic symmetry-protected state can be driven to a new fixed point by coupling to the boundary fluctuations of a bulk quantum phase transition; (ii) the states localized at a 2d2d2d interface of a 3dSU(N)3d\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\mathrm{SU}(N)3dSU(N) quantum antiferromagnet may be driven to a new fixed point by coupling to the bulk quantum critical modes. Properties of the new fixed points identified are also studied.
We study the boundary states of the archetypal three dimensional topological order, i.e. the three dimensional \mathbb{Z}_2 ℤ 2 toric code. There are three distinct elementary types of boundary states that we will consider in this work. In the phase diagram that includes the three elementary boundaries there may exist a multi-critical point, which is captured by the so-called deconfined quantum critical point (DQCP) with an “easy-axis” anisotropy. Moreover, there is an emergent \mathbb{Z}_{2,d} ℤ 2 , d symmetry that swaps two of the boundary types, and it becomes part of the global symmetry of the DQCP. The emergent \mathbb{Z}_{2,d} ℤ 2 , d (where d represents “defect”) symmetry on the boundary is originated from a type of surface defect in the bulk. We further find a gapped boundary with a surface topological order that is invariant under the emergent symmetry.
Decades of research have revealed a deep understanding of topological quantum matter with protected edge modes. We report that even richer physics emerges when tuning between two topological phases of matter whose respective edge modes are incompatible. The frustration at the edge leads to novel boundary physics, such as symmetry-breaking phases with exotic non-Landau transitions---even when the edge is zero-dimensional. As a minimal case study, we consider spin chains with ${\mathbb{Z}}_{3}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{\mathbb{Z}}_{3}$ symmetry, exhibiting two nontrivial symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases. At the bulk 1+1D critical transition between these SPT phases, we find two stable 0+1D boundary phases, each spontaneously breaking one of the Z3{\mathbb{Z}}_{3}Z3​ symmetries. Furthermore, we find that a single boundary parameter tunes a non-Landau boundary critical transition between these two phases. This constitutes a 0+1D version of an exotic phenomenon driven by charged vortex condensation known as deconfined quantum criticality. This work highlights the rich unexplored physics of criticality between nontrivial topological phases and provides insights into the burgeoning field of gapless topological phases.
We study the edge physics of the deconfined quantum phase transition (DQCP) between a spontaneous quantum spin Hall (QSH) insulator and a spin-singlet superconductor (SC). Although the bulk of this transition is in the same universality class as the paradigmatic deconfined Neel to valence-bond-solid transition, the boundary physics has a richer structure due to proximity to a quantum spin Hall state. We use the parton trick to write down an effective field theory for the QSH-SC transition in the presence of a boundary. We calculate various edge properties in an N\to\infty N → ∞ limit. We show that the boundary Luttinger liquid in the QSH state survives at the phase transition, but only as ``fractional’’ degrees of freedom that carry charge but not spin. The physical fermion remains gapless on the edge at the critical point, with a universal jump in the fermion scaling dimension as the system approaches the transition from the QSH side. The critical point could be viewed as a gapless analogue of the quantum spin Hall state but with the full SU(2) S U ( 2 ) spin rotation symmetry, which cannot be realized if the bulk is gapped.
Recent works on the scaling behaviors of entanglement entropy at the SO(5) deconfined quantum critical point (DQCP) sparked a huge controversy. Different bipartitions gave out totally different conclusions for whether the DQCP is consistent with a unitary conformal field theory. In this Letter, we connect two previously disconnected fields-the many-body entanglement and the surface criticality-to reveal the behaviors of entanglement entropy in various bipartite scenarios, and point out that only the ordinary bipartition purely reflects the criticality of the bulk; otherwise, the extra gapless edge mode will also contribute to the entanglement. We have demonstrated that the correspondence between the entanglement spectrum and the edge energy spectrum still approximately persists even at a bulk-gapless point, thereby influencing the behavior of entanglement entropy. Our results establish that boundary conditions induced by the cut are decisive for entanglement-based probes and provide practical protocols to separate bulk from boundary contributions.