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arXiv:2412.07563 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Boundary anomaly detection in two-dimensional subsystem symmetry-protected topological phases

Ke Ding, Haoran Zhang, Bowei Liu, Shuo Yang

Published May 19, 2025• 3 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We generalize the topological response theory to detect the boundary anomalies of linear subsystem symmetries. This approach allows us to distinguish different subsystem symmetry-protected topological (SSPT) phases and uncover new ones. We focus on the cases where the mixed anomaly exists within the adjacent subsystems. Using numerical simulations, we demonstrate the power of this method by identifying strong and weak ${Z}_{2}^{\ensuremath{\tau}}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{Z}_{2}^{\ensuremath{\sigma}}$ SSPT phases in a tunable tensor network state. Our analysis reveals an intrinsic ${Z}_{2}$ SSPT phase characterized by its degenerate entanglement spectrum. Furthermore, we extend the anomaly indicator to mixed-state density matrices and show that quantum anomalies of subsystem symmetry can persist under both uniform and alternating disorders. This finding establishes a connection between boundary quantum anomalies in pure and mixed states. Our work provides a numerical method to detect quantum anomalies of subsystem symmetries, offering new insights into the study of topological quantum phases.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.111.205125

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Subsystem symmetry protected topological (SSPT) order is a type of quantum order that is protected by symmetries acting on lower-dimensional subsystems of the entire system. In this paper, we show how SSPT order can be characterized and detected by a constant correction to the entanglement area law, similar to the topological entanglement entropy. Focusing on the paradigmatic two-dimensional cluster phase as an example, we use tensor network methods to give an analytic argument that almost all states in the phase exhibit the same correction to the area law, such that this correction may be used to reliably detect the SSPT order of the cluster phase. Based on this idea, we formulate a numerical method that uses tensor networks to extract this correction from ground-state wave functions. We use this method to study the fate of the SSPT order of the cluster state under various external fields and interactions, and find that the correction persists unless a phase transition is crossed, or the subsystem symmetry is explicitly broken. Surprisingly, these results uncover that the SSPT order of the cluster state persists beyond the cluster phase, thanks to a new type of subsystem time-reversal symmetry. Finally, we discuss the correction to the area law found in three-dimensional cluster states on different lattices, indicating rich behavior for general subsystem symmetries.
We introduce a class of intrinsic symmetry-protected topological mixed state (mSPT) in open quantum systems that feature modulated symmetries, such as dipole and subsystem symmetries. Intriguingly, these mSPT phases cannot be realized as the ground states of a gapped Hamiltonian under thermal equilibrium. The microscopic form of the density matrix characterizing these intrinsic mixed-state SPT ensembles is constructed using solvable coupled-wire models that incorporate quenched disorder or quantum channels. A detailed comparison of the hierarchical structure of boundary anomalies in both pure and mixed states is presented, utilizing flux insertion and Laughlin's charge pumping arguments. Finally, we explore the salient features of boundary anomalies in the mixed-state ensemble, which can be detected through the R\'enyi-NNN correlation function of charged observables.
Abstract Symmetry-protected topological phases are short-range entangled quantum states characterized by anomalous edge behavior, a manifestation of the bulk-boundary correspondence for topological phases. Moreover, the Li-Haldane conjecture posits that the entanglement spectrum exhibits the same anomaly as the physical edge spectrum, thereby serving as an entanglement-based fingerprint for identifying topological phases. In this work, we extend the entanglement-based diagnostic tools by demonstrating that the edge anomaly is manifested not only in the entanglement spectrum but also in the reduced density matrix itself, a phenomenon we refer to as the mixed-state anomaly. For the two-dimensional SPT phase, we derive a topological contribution in the disorder parameter as a consequence of this mixed-state anomaly. Furthermore, with additional time-reversal symmetry, the anomalous reduced density matrix induces a spontaneous-symmetry-breaking type long-range order in the presence of the disorder operator.
We employ strange correlators to detect 2D subsystem symmetry protected topological (SSPT) phases which are nontrivial topological phases protected by subsystem symmetries. Specifically, we analytically construct efficient strange correlators in the 2D cluster model in the presence of the uniform magnetic field and then perform the projector quantum Monte Carlo simulation within the quantum annealing scheme. We find that strange correlators show a long-range correlation in the SSPT phase, from which we define strange order parameters to characterize the topological phase transition between the SSPT phase at low fields and the trivial paramagnetic phase at high fields. Thus the detection of the fully localized zero modes on the 1D physical boundary of the SSPT phase has been transformed to the bulk correlation measurement about the local operators with the periodic boundary condition. We also find interesting spatial anisotropy of a strange correlator, which can be intrinsically traced back to the nature of spatial anisotropy of subsystem symmetries that protect SSPT order in the 2D cluster model. By simulating strange correlators, we, therefore, provide the first unbiased large-scale quantum Monte Carlo simulation on the easy and efficient detection in the SSPT phase and open the avenue of the investigation of the subtle yet fundamental nature of the novel interacting topological phases.
We establish a holographic duality between d -dimensional mixed-state symmetry-protected topological (mSPT) phases and ( d + 1 ) -dimensional subsystem symmetry-protected topological (SSPT) states. Specifically, we show that the reduced density matrix of the boundary layer of a ( d + 1 ) -dimensional SSPT state with subsystem symmetry S and global symmetry G corresponds to a d -dimensional mSPT phase with strong S and weak G symmetries. Conversely, we demonstrate that the wave function of an SSPT state can be constructed by replicating the density matrix of the corresponding lower-dimensional mSPT phase. This mapping links the density matrix in lower dimensions to the entanglement properties of higher-dimensional wave functions, providing an approach for analyzing nonlinear quantities and quantum information metrics in mixed-state systems. Our duality offers a new perspective for studying intrinsic mSPT phases that are unique to open quantum systems, without pure-state analogues. We show that strange correlators and twisted Rényi- N correlators can diagnose these nontrivial phases and we explore their connection to strange correlators in pure-state SSPT phases. Furthermore, we discuss several implications of this holographic duality, including a method for preparing intrinsic mSPT phases through the duality.
Edge theories of symmetry-protected topological phases are well known to possess global symmetry anomalies. In this Letter we focus on two-dimensional bosonic phases protected by an on-site symmetry and analyze the corresponding edge anomalies in more detail. Physical interpretations of the anomaly in terms of an obstruction to orbifolding and constructing symmetry-preserving boundaries are connected to the cohomology classification of symmetry-protected phases in two dimensions. Using the tensor network and matrix product state formalism we numerically illustrate our arguments and discuss computational detection schemes to identify symmetry-protected order in a ground state wave function.