Two-dimensional mirror symmetry enriched topological (SET) orders can be studied using the folding approach: it can be folded along the mirror axis and turned into a bilayer system on which the mirror symmetry acts as a ${\mathbb{Z}}_{2}$ layer-exchange symmetry. How mirror symmetry enriches the topological order is then encoded at the mirror axis, which is a gapped boundary of the folded bilayer system. Based on anyon-condensation theory, we classify possible ${\mathbb{Z}}_{2}$-symmetric gapped boundaries of the folded system. In particular, we derive an ${H}^{2}$ obstruction function, which corresponds to an ${H}^{3}$ obstruction for topological orders enriched by the time-reversal symmetry instead of mirror symmetry. We demonstrate that states with a nontrivial ${H}^{2}$ obstruction function can be constructed on the surface of a three-dimensional mirror SET order.
Two-dimensional mirror symmetry enriched topological (SET) orders can be studied using the folding approach: it can be folded along the mirror axis and turned into a bilayer system on which the mirror symmetry acts as a Z2 layer-exchange symmetry. How mirror symmetry enriches the topological order is then encoded at the mirror axis, which is a gapped boundary of the folded bilayer system. Based on anyon-condensation theory, we classify possible Z2-symmetric gapped boundaries of the folded system. In particular, we derive an H2 obstruction function, which corresponds to an H3 obstruction for topological orders enriched by the time-reversal symmetry instead of mirror symmetry. We demonstrate that states with a nontrivial H2 obstruction function can be constructed on the surface of a three-dimensional mirror SET order.
We develop a folding approach to study two-dimensional symmetry-enriched topological (SET) phases with the mirror reflection symmetry. Our folding approach significantly transforms the mirror SETs, such that their properties can be conveniently studied through previously known tools: (i) it maps the nonlocal mirror symmetry to an onsite Z[subscript 2] layer-exchange symmetry after folding the SET along the mirror axis, so that we can gauge the symmetry; (ii) it maps all mirror SET information into the boundary properties of the folded system, so that they can be studied by the anyon condensation theory—a general theory for studying gapped boundaries of topological orders; and (iii) it makes the mirror anomalies explicitly exposed in the boundary properties, i.e., strictly 2D SETs and those that can only live on the surface of a 3D system can be easily distinguished through the folding approach. With the folding approach, we derive a set of physical constraints on data that describes mirror SET, namely, mirror permutation and mirror symmetry fractionalization on the anyon excitations in the topological order. We conjecture that these constraints may be complete, in the sense that all solutions are realizable in physical systems. Several examples are discussed to justify this. Previously known general results on the classification and anomalies are also reproduced through our approach.
We study the classification of two-dimensional (2D) topological orders enriched by point-group symmetries, by generalizing the folding approach, which was previously developed for mirror-symmetry-enriched topological orders. We fold the 2D plane hosting the topological order into the fundamental domain of the point group, which is a sector with an angle $2\ensuremath{\pi}/n$ for the cyclic point group Cn and a sector with an angle $\ensuremath{\pi}/n$ for the dihedral point group D2n, and the point-group symmetries become onsite unitary symmetries on the sector. The enrichment of the point-group symmetries is then fully encoded at the boundary of the sector and the apex of the section, which forms a junction between the two boundaries. The mirror-symmetry enrichment encoded on the boundaries is analyzed by the classification theory of symmetric gapped boundaries, and the point-group-symmetry enrichment encoded on the junction is analyzed by a framework for classifying symmetric gapped junctions between boundaries which we develop in this work. We show that at the junction, there are two potential obstructions, which we refer to as an H1 obstruction and an H2 obstruction, respectively. When the obstruction vanishes, the junction, and therefore the point-group-symmetry-enriched topological orders, are classified by an H0 cohomology class and an H1 cohomology class, which can be understood as an additional Abelian anyon and a symmetry charge attached to the rotation center, respectively. These results are consistent with the classification of onsite-symmetry-enriched topological orders, where the H1 and H2 obstructions and the junction correspond to the H3 and H4 obstructions for onsite symmetries, respectively.
Understanding the role of global symmetries and their quantum anomalies in two-dimensional topological order is a challenging problem, especially for time-reversal and mirror-reflection symmetries. Here, the authors develop a new folding approach to mirror-symmetry enriched topological order, which relates this problem to anyon-condensation theory. The approach is physically transparent and easy to compute for some simple, yet important examples. The folding approach can be generalized to study topological order with many other crystalline symmetries and their quantum anomalies.
In addition to possessing fractional statistics, anyon excitations of a 2D topologically ordered state can realize symmetry in distinct ways, leading to a variety of symmetry-enriched topological (SET) phases.While the symmetry fractionalization must be consistent with the fusion and braiding rules of the anyons, not all ostensibly consistent symmetry fractionalizations can be realized in 2D systems.Instead, certain "anomalous" SETs can only occur on the surface of a 3D symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phase.In this paper, we describe a procedure for determining whether a SET of a discrete, on-site, unitary symmetry group G is anomalous or not.The basic idea is to gauge the symmetry and expose the anomaly as an obstruction to a consistent topological theory combining both the original anyons and the gauge fluxes.Utilizing a result of Etingof, Nikshych, and Ostrik, we point out that a class of obstructions is captured by the fourth cohomology group H 4 ðG; Uð1ÞÞ, which also precisely labels the set of 3D SPT phases, with symmetry group G.An explicit procedure for calculating the cohomology data from a SET is given, with the corresponding physical intuition explained.We thus establish a general bulk-boundary correspondence between the anomalous SET and the 3D bulk SPT whose surface termination realizes it.We illustrate this idea using the chiral spin liquid [Uð1Þ 2 ] topological order with a reduced symmetry Z 2 × Z 2 ⊂ SOð3Þ, which can act on the semion quasiparticle in an anomalous way.We construct exactly solved 3D SPT models realizing the anomalous surface terminations and demonstrate that they are nontrivial by computing three-loop braiding statistics.Possible extensions to antiunitary symmetries are also discussed.
We derive a series of quantitative bulk-boundary correspondences for 3D bosonic and fermionic symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases under the assumption that the surface is gapped, symmetric, and topologically ordered, i.e., a symmetry-enriched topological (SET) state. We consider those SPT phases that are protected by the mirror symmetry and continuous symmetries that form a group of U(1), SU(2), or SO(3). In particular, the fermionic cases correspond to a crystalline version of 3D topological insulators and topological superconductors in the famous tenfold-way classification, with the time-reversal symmetry replaced by the mirror symmetry and with strong interaction taken into account. For surface SETs, the most general interplay between symmetries and anyon excitations is considered. Based on the previously proposed dimensional reduction and folding approaches, we rederive the classification of bulk SPT phases and define a complete set of bulk topological invariants for every symmetry group under consideration and then derive explicit expressions of the bulk invariants in terms of surface topological properties (such as topological spin, quantum dimension) and symmetry properties (such as mirror fractionalization, fractional charge or spin). These expressions are our quantitative bulk-boundary correspondences. Meanwhile, the bulk topological invariants can be interpreted as anomaly indicators for the surface SETs which carry 't Hooft anomalies of the associated symmetries whenever the bulk is topologically nontrivial. Hence, the quantitative bulk-boundary correspondences provide an easy way to compute the 't Hooft anomalies of the surface SETs. Moreover, our anomaly indicators are complete. Our derivations of the bulk-boundary correspondences and anomaly indicators are explicit and physically transparent. The anomaly indicators obtained in this work can be straightforwardly translated to their time-reversal counterparts that apply to the usual topological insulators and topological superconductors, due to a known correspondence between mirror and time-reversal topological phases.
Symmetry protected topological phases protected by crystalline symmetries and internal symmetries are shown to enjoy fascinating one-to-one correspondence in classification. Here we investigate the physics content behind the abstract correspondence in three or higher-dimensional systems. We show correspondence between anomalous boundary states, which provides a new way to explore the quantum anomaly of symmetry from its crystalline equivalent counterpart. We show such a correspondence directly in two scenarios, including the anomalous symmetry-enriched topological orders (SET) and critical boundary states. (1) First of all, for the surface SET correspondence, we demonstrate it by considering examples involving time-reversal symmetry and mirror symmetry. We show that one 2D topological order can carry the time reversal anomaly as long as it can carry the mirror anomaly and vice versa, by directly establishing the mapping of the time reversal anomaly indicators and mirror anomaly indicators. Besides, we also consider other cases involving continuous symmetry, which leads us to introduce some new anomaly indicators for symmetry from its counterpart. (2) Furthermore, we also build up direct correspondence for (near) critical boundaries. In this perspective, we first consider the edge-corner correspondence between edge theory as 1+1D conformal field theory of internal fermionic SPT and the 0+1D corner modes of (higher-order) crystalline fermionic SPT. By viewing the corner modes on 1D boundary as perturbed CFT is crucial insight for the correspondence, but also help to discover the boundary theory of some intrinsically interacting fermionic SPT, whcih are challenging. Next, we discuss this correspondence bosonic systems, again taking topological phases protected by time reversal and mirror symmetry as examples, the direct correspondence of their (near) critical boundaries can be built up by coupled chain construction that was first proposed by Senthil and Fisher. The examples of critical boundary correspondence we consider in this paper can be understood in a unified framework that is related to hierarchy structure of topological O(n) O ( n ) nonlinear sigma model (NL \sigma σ M), that generalizes the Haldane’s derivation of O(3) O ( 3 ) sigma model from spin one-half system. To our best of knowledge, this hierarchy structure of the O(n) O ( n ) NL \sigma σ M is first exposed, which inspires us to explore more interesting connection between different theories in the light of the boundary correspondence.