Within quantum many-body phase diagrams, continuous transition lines can appear and then terminate. However, it has remained unclear whether the neighboring regimes can be meaningfully described as distinct phases, akin to water and vapour, since any sharp characterization would have to go beyond the usual notion of phases of matter. We answer this in the affirmative by introducing quasi-phases: gapped regimes near a critical point that are connected in the broader phase diagram, but not by any gapped path accessible from small perturbations of the critical theory. The physical consequences include interface modes between regimes in the same phase of matter. More striking still, describing both the extended critical line and the gapped path connecting the regimes requires a bigger multicritical parent theory. In spin-chain examples with continuous terminating lines with central charge $c=1$, we find multicritical $c=3/2$ and $c=9/5$ orbifolds describing so-called 'quotient symmetry protected' and 'representation symmetry protected' topological phenomena. While one-dimensional symmetry-protected topological phases are labeled by projective representation classes, these quasi-phases can have interface modes carrying higher-dimensional linear representations. We turn this into a constructive principle through a weakening of the Lieb-Schultz-Mattis anomaly. Supporting distinct quasi-phases makes an unnecessary critical point infrared-necessary, even if it is unnecessary at the ultraviolet scale. This condition is more restrictive than simply having a codimension-one critical line, revealing richer structure within phases of matter than their conventional classification suggests.
AI Summary
Can gapped regimes separated by a terminating continuous transition be sharply distinguished when they belong to the same conventional phase? This paper introduces *quasi-phases*, defined relative to a critical theory through connectivity under its perturbations and RG flows. The interface formulation distinguishes genuine quasi-phase separation from a critical line alone: bulk-irrelevant operators can sometimes remove interface degeneracy. Criticality separating distinct quasi-phases is termed *infrared-necessary*, despite being unnecessary under conventional phase classification.
The framework is developed through one-dimensional spin chains exhibiting quotient-symmetry-protected and representation-symmetry-protected phenomena, and symmetry-breaking Potts/anti-Potts regimes. Explicit symmetric gapped paths establish that the neighboring regimes are globally connected. Effective Hamiltonians, bosonization, orbifold constructions, matrix-product-state paths and iDMRG characterize their local distinctions and broader phase diagrams. A spin-1 XX chain with single-ion anisotropy has a terminating $c=1$ transition meeting a $c=3/2$ Ising–boson orbifold multicritical point. An $S_3$-symmetric spin-$1/2$ construction motivates a Potts–boson orbifold with $c=9/5$, accessed numerically in an extended model. Interfaces can carry higher-dimensional linear representations rather than projective representations; their singlet content motivates a construction principle related to weakened Lieb–Schultz–Mattis constraints.
The examples center on compact-boson criticality in $1+1$ dimensions. For representation-protected cases, selecting the lowest-energy interface requires additional analysis beyond the semiclassical and perturbative arguments provided. Some phase-boundary universality classes remain numerically unresolved. Higher-dimensional examples, gapless quasi-phases and a precise relationship to charge pumps are left open.
No sign of AI-generated text
Central claim may not hold: For the RSPT examples, identifying distinct quasi-phases depends on the lowest-energy interface being a doublet rather than an allowed singlet, and the paper does not establish that ordering beyond its restricted free-fermion argument and semiclassical reasoning.
The abstract's assertion that a larger multicritical parent theory is required is stronger than the demonstrated insufficiency of the original critical theory and the example-specific orbifold constructions.
Written by gpt-6.1-sol from the paper's full text. Automated: it can be wrong.
Within quantum many-body phase diagrams, continuous transition lines can appear and then terminate. However, it has remained unclear whether the neighboring regimes can be meaningfully described as distinct phases, akin to water and vapour, since any sharp characterization would have to go beyond the usual notion of phases of matter. We answer this in the affirmative by introducing quasi-phases: gapped regimes near a critical point that are connected in the broader phase diagram, but not by any gapped path accessible from small perturbations of the critical theory. The physical consequences include interface modes between regimes in the same phase of matter. More striking still, describing both the extended critical line and the gapped path connecting the regimes requires a bigger multicritical parent theory. In spin-chain examples with continuous terminating lines with central charge c=1, we find multicritical c=3/2 and c=9/5 orbifolds describing so-called 'quotient symmetry protected' and 'representation symmetry protected' topological phenomena. While one-dimensional symmetry-protected topological phases are labeled by projective representation classes, these quasi-phases can have interface modes carrying higher-dimensional linear representations. We turn this into a constructive principle through a weakening of the Lieb-Schultz-Mattis anomaly. Supporting distinct quasi-phases makes an unnecessary critical point infrared-necessary, even if it is unnecessary at the ultraviolet scale. This condition is more restrictive than simply having a codimension-one critical line, revealing richer structure within phases of matter than their conventional classification suggests.
Can gapped regimes separated by a terminating continuous transition be sharply distinguished when they belong to the same conventional phase? This paper introduces quasi-phases, defined relative to a critical theory through connectivity under its perturbations and RG flows. The interface formulation distinguishes genuine quasi-phase separation from a critical line alone: bulk-irrelevant operators can sometimes remove interface degeneracy. Criticality separating distinct quasi-phases is termed infrared-necessary, despite being unnecessary under conventional phase classification.
The framework is developed through one-dimensional spin chains exhibiting quotient-symmetry-protected and representation-symmetry-protected phenomena, and symmetry-breaking Potts/anti-Potts regimes. Explicit symmetric gapped paths establish that the neighboring regimes are globally connected. Effective Hamiltonians, bosonization, orbifold constructions, matrix-product-state paths and iDMRG characterize their local distinctions and broader phase diagrams. A spin-1 XX chain with single-ion anisotropy has a terminating c=1 transition meeting a c=3/2 Ising–boson orbifold multicritical point. An S3-symmetric spin-1/2 construction motivates a Potts–boson orbifold with c=9/5, accessed numerically in an extended model. Interfaces can carry higher-dimensional linear representations rather than projective representations; their singlet content motivates a construction principle related to weakened Lieb–Schultz–Mattis constraints.
The examples center on compact-boson criticality in 1+1 dimensions. For representation-protected cases, selecting the lowest-energy interface requires additional analysis beyond the semiclassical and perturbative arguments provided. Some phase-boundary universality classes remain numerically unresolved. Higher-dimensional examples, gapless quasi-phases and a precise relationship to charge pumps are left open.
Topological phenomena are commonly studied in phases of matter which are separated from a trivial phase by an unavoidable quantum phase transition. This can be overly restrictive, leaving out scenarios of practical relevance -- similar to the distinction between liquid water and vapor. Indeed, we show that topological phenomena can be stable over a large part of parameter space even when the bulk is strictly speaking in a trivial phase of matter. In particular, we focus on symmetry-protected topological phases which can be trivialized by extending the symmetry group. The topological Haldane phase in spin chains serves as a paradigmatic example where the SO(3) symmetry is extended to SU(2) by tuning away from the Mott limit. Although the Haldane phase is then adiabatically connected to a product state, we show that characteristic phenomena -- edge modes, entanglement degeneracies and bulk phase transitions -- remain parametrically stable. This stability is due to a separation of energy scales, characterized by quantized invariants which are well-defined when a subgroup of the symmetry only acts on high-energy degrees of freedom. The low-energy symmetry group is a quotient group whose emergent anomalies stabilize edge modes and unnecessary criticality, which can occur in any dimension.
One problem of paramount importance in physics over various fields such as elementary particle physics, condensed matter physics, and statistical mechanics has been to make classification of phases of matter, including nontrivial structures of the vacuum. The triumphant history of theory on the phase classification and the phase transition can be traced back to Landau, which is based on the spontaneous breaking of symmetry. It is known, however, that other kinds of phases exist that cannot be characterized by conventional arguments of symmetry breaking, namely, topological phases. Topological phases are gapped phases at zero temperature without symmetry breaking. Examples of the topological phases include a quantum phase in a fractional quantum Hall system, where the ground state exhibits degeneracy, and an anyon, a quasi-particle with nontrivial statistical nature, neither boson nor fermion, emerges as a low-energy excitation. In contemporary physics of the 21st century, it has been revealed that, among various topological states, there exists a nontrivial ground state that does not have ground state degeneracy and yet can be distinguished from a trivial state. This nontrivial ground state, i.e., a topological insulator, has been recognized first in free electron systems [1–3] and later extended to more general quantum many-body systems with interactions including bosonic (spin) systems. Now, such a generalized situation is called a symmetry protected topological (SPT) phase [4–7]. From the point of a modern view of the SPT phase, nontrivial states, such as the Haldane state proposed in antiferromagnetic quantum spin systems in the 1980’s [8] and the ground state in the Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki model [9], belong to the SPT phase. A remarkable feature of the SPT phase is that, if the system has a surface, gapless surface states appear and they are stable against disturbances which do not break the symmetry. One way to understand these surface states is the quantum anomaly on the surface. That is, as long as the surface is concerned, the quantum anomaly arises, but the whole system has no quantum anomaly, and the symmetry is preserved due to cancellation from the bulk contribution. This canceling mechanism of the quantum anomaly has been long known as the anomaly inflow in elementary particle physics [10]. In fact, the classification of the SPT phases can be identified as the classification of the quantum anomaly through the bulk-boundary correspondence. This type of the quantum anomaly closely related to the SPT phase can provide us with a useful theoretical device to constrain phases that can or cannot be realized under the ’t Hooft anomaly matching condition [11–13]. It is quite difficult to scrutinize nonperturbatively interacting systems, but the ’t Hooft anomaly matching condition can be applied to those systems, and possible phases can be constrained. Nowadays, our understanding of the SPT phases has been so developed that applications of the anomaly matching condition can cover systems with finite groups and/or extending objects [14–16]. In this way, the concept of the topological phases has been essential by now in a wide range of physics, particularly in elementary particle physics, condensed matter physics, and statistical mechanics, as mentioned in the beginning. This special section is a collection of papers related to the topological aspects of physics including the topological phases. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the authors who made excellent contributions.
Symmetries play a central role in organizing many-body quantum phases of matter and in revealing universal low-energy behavior. Systems with gapless excitations are especially rich, as symmetries can act in intricate ways on low-energy degrees of freedom, while enhanced correlations and entanglement open possibilities not available in gapped settings. This thesis studies two settings in which symmetry considerations give rise to qualitatively new phenomena in gapless quantum matter and correlated electronic systems. In the first part of the thesis, I study how the framework developed for gapped topological phases can be generalized to gapless systems, especially those arising at topological phase transitions. I show that symmetry can refine a fixed conformal field theory universality class into distinct symmetry-enriched critical phases that cannot be smoothly connected without breaking symmetry or leaving the critical theory. In Chapter 1, I show that transitions between distinct symmetry-protected topological phases can exhibit exotic boundary critical behavior not seen in gapped systems. In Chapter 2, I show that distinct gapless symmetry-enriched phases can meet at an anomalous multicritical point. In Chapter 3, I show that spatial interfaces provide an operational indicator of these phases, and that distinct symmetry-enriched criticalities are separated by non-invertible conformal defects. Together, these results show that subtle distinctions in symmetry-enriched criticality have robust and physically detectable consequences. In the second part of the thesis, I study how symmetry and strong interactions govern charge carriers in correlated electron systems. In Chapter 4, I develop a microscopic theory of the Josephson diode effect in Josephson junctions, showing that nonreciprocal supercurrents arise universally from finite Cooper-pair momentum when time-reversal and inversion symmetry are simultaneously broken. In Chapter 5, I study spin-polaron formation in a flat-band ferromagnetic Hubbard model and show that binding occurs in a regime where the conventional mechanisms based on kinetic frustration or nontrivial band topology do not apply, but instead exotic composite charge carriers arise from quantum geometry.
The Schrödinger equation is nearly a century old, yet we are still in the midst of uncovering the remarkable phenomena emerging in many-body quantum systems. From superconductivity to anyonic quasiparticles, nature consistently surprises with its rich self-organization. To elucidate and grasp this variety, it is paramount to understand the phases of matter that can occur in many-body ground states, as well as their emergent collective excitations. Of particular interest are topological phases of matter, characterized by exotic excitations or edge phenomena. There exist by now several universal frameworks for gapped systems, i.e., those with an energy gap above the ground state. However, in the last decade, a multitude of gapless quantum wires---effectively one-dimensional systems---have been reported to be topologically non-trivial. A framework for their understanding and classification is missing. In addition to ground state order---topological or otherwise---a more complete picture involves the properties of excitations above the ground state. Alas, little is known about excitations beyond the universal low-energy regime. In part, this is due to a lack of analytical and numerical methods able to describe excitations at finite energies, especially in strongly-interacting systems beyond one dimension. In this thesis, we address these issues: firstly, we build a general understanding of topological phases in one dimension, including both gapped and gapless cases. In particular, we unify previously studied examples into a single framework. Secondly, we develop a novel numerical method for obtaining spectral functions in two dimensions---these give direct insight into the properties of excitations and are moreover experimentally measurable. Using this numerical method, we uncover a variety of robust properties of excitations at finite energies. Part I of this thesis concerns gapped and gapless topological phases in one dimension. In Chapter 2, we first treat the case of non-interacting fermions. Therein, we review the known classification of gapped phases before extending it to the gapless case, showing that exponentially-localized Majorana zero modes can still emerge at the edge when the bulk is gapless. Interacting gapped phases are discussed in Chapter 3, with a focus on symmetry-protected topological order. These have already been classified; our contribution is to provide a non-technical review of this classification as well as showing that many paradigmatic model Hamiltonians can be related to one another. Finally, Chapter 4 introduces the notion of symmetry-enriched quantum criticality, which we propose as a framework for classifying gapless phases. The key message is that in the presence of symmetries, a universality class can divide into distinct phases, characterized by the symmetry action on the low-energy scaling operators. This includes gapless topological phases, with examples hiding in plain sight; we clarify their stability and reinterpret previously studied examples. Part II studies the excitations above the ground states of two-dimensional quantum spin models. The main object of our study is the dynamic spin structure factor; this type of spectral function is reviewed in the first part of Chapter 5. The second part of this chapter introduces a novel matrix-product-state-based algorithm to efficiently compute it, opening a new window on the dynamics of two-dimensional quantum systems. We benchmark this numerical method in Chapter 6 on the exactly-solvable Kitaev model---a paradigmatic topological model realizing a quantum spin liquid. By adding non-integrable Heisenberg perturbations, we identify the first unequivocal theoretical realization of a proximate spin liquid: the ground state becomes conventionally ordered, yet the high-energy spectral properties are structurally similar to those of the nearby Kitaev spin liquid. The latter agrees with aspects of recent inelastic neutron scattering experiments on alpha-RuCl3. In Chapter 7, we turn to one of the oldest models in many-body quantum physics: the spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the square lattice. Despite its venerable history, there is still disagreement about the physical origin of high-energy spectral features which low-order spin wave theory cannot account for. We provide a simple picture for this strongly-interacting-magnon feature by connecting it to a simple Ising limit. Lastly, Chapter 8 discusses the stability of quasiparticles---collective excitations behaving like a single emergent entity, of which magnons are a prime example. These are often known to be stable at the lowest energies and are presumed to decay whenever this is seemingly allowed by energy and momentum conservation. However, we show that strong interactions can prevent this from happening. We numerically confirm this principle of avoided decay in the (slightly-detuned) Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the triangular lattice. Moreover, we can even identify its fingerprints in existing experimental data on Ba3CoSb2O9 and superfluid helium. In this thesis, we thus enlarge our understanding of quantum phases and their excitations. The identification of the key principles of gapless topological phases in one dimension calls for direct analogues in higher dimensions, waiting to be uncovered. With regard to the robust properties of the excitations identified in this thesis, we are hopeful that these can be extended into a theory of quasiparticle properties away from the universal low-energy regime.
Quantum entanglement can be an effective diagnostic tool for probing topological phases protected by global symmetries. Recently, the notion of nontrivial topology in critical systems has been proposed and is attracting growing attention. In this work, as a concrete example, we explore the quantum entanglement properties of fermionic symmetry-enriched quantum critical points by constructing exactly solvable models based on stacked multiple Kitaev chains. We first analytically establish the global phase diagram using entanglement entropy and reveal three topologically distinct gapped phases with different winding numbers, along with three topologically distinct transition lines separating them. Importantly, we unambiguously demonstrate that two transition lines exhibit fundamentally different topological properties despite sharing the same central charge. Specifically, they display nontrivial topological degeneracy in the entanglement spectrum under periodic boundary conditions, thereby generalizing the Li-Haldane bulk-boundary correspondence to a broader class of fermionic symmetry-enriched criticality. Additionally, we identify a novel Lifshitz multicritical point at the intersection of the three transition lines, which also exhibits nontrivial topological degeneracy. This work provides a valuable reference for investigating gapless topological phases of matter from the perspective of quantum entanglement.
The phase diagram of the quantum spin-21 antiferromagnetic ${J}_{1}^{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}\text{\ensuremath{-}}{J}_{2}^{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}$ XXZ chain was obtained by Haldane using bosonization techniques [Haldane, Phys. Rev. B 25, 4925 (1982); Phys. Rev. B 26, 5257 (1982)]. It supports three distinct phases for $0\ensuremath{\le}{J}_{2}^{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}/{J}_{1}^{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}<\frac{1}{2}$, i.e., a gapless algebraic spin-liquid phase, a gapped long-range ordered Neel phase, and a gapped long-range ordered dimer phase. Even though the Neel and dimer phases are not related hierarchically by a pattern of symmetry breaking, it was shown that they meet along a line of quantum critical points with a U(1) symmetry and central charge c=1. Here, we extend the analysis made by Haldane on the quantum spin-21 antiferromagnetic ${J}_{1}^{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}\text{\ensuremath{-}}{J}_{2}^{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}$ XYZ chain using both bosonization and numerical techniques. We show that there are three Neel phases and the dimer phase that are separated from each other by six planes of phase boundaries realizing Gaussian criticality when $0\ensuremath{\le}{J}_{2}^{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}/{J}_{1}^{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}<\frac{1}{2}$. We also show that each long-range ordered phase harbors topological point defects (domain walls) that are dual to those across the phase boundary in that a defect in one ordered phase locally binds the other type of order around its core. By using the bosonization approach, we identify the critical theory that describes simultaneous proliferation of these dual point defects, and show that it supports an emergent U(1) symmetry that originates from the discrete symmetries of the XYZ model. To confirm this numerically, we perform exact diagonalization and density-matrix renormalization-group calculations and show that the critical theory is characterized by the central charge c=1 with critical exponents that are consistent with those obtained from the bosonization approach. Furthermore, we generalize the field-theoretic description of direct continuous phase transition to higher dimensions, especially in d=3, by using a nonlinear sigma model (NLSM) with a topological term. In particular, we propose the $\ensuremath{\pi}$-flux phase on the cubic lattice with local quartic interactions as a platform for direct continuous phase transition and deconfined criticality. We discuss possible phase diagrams for the $\ensuremath{\pi}$-flux phase on the cubic lattice with these quartic interactions from the renormalization flow of NLSMs.