Topological order and topological memories at finite temperature

Dalimil Mazáč, Alioscia Hamma

Claudio Castelnovo, Claudio Chamon

Jacopo Gliozzi, Taylor L. Hughes, Kyung-Su Kim

We introduce two-dimensional toric code models with additional long-range loop interactions. Our models preserve the topologically ordered ground states of the ordinary toric code, while confining anyons at zero temperature. For sufficiently long-ranged interactions, we argue that this confinement persists at finite temperatures, strongly constraining anyon mobility and giving rise to finite-temperature topological order. This topological phase acts as a self-correcting quantum memory and exhibits long-range entanglement. For shorter-ranged interactions, signatures of topological order survive only up to an exponentially large length scale at finite temperature, yielding a partially self-correcting quantum memory.

Beni Yoshida

Lukas Wawer, Dominik Linzner, Michael Fleischhauer

Zhi Li, Roger S. K. Mong

We consider topological entanglement entropy (TEE) at finite temperature for CSS codes, which include some ordinary topological-ordered systems such as the toric code and some fracton models such as the Haah's code and the X-cube model. We find, under the assumption that there is no extended critical phase, the finite-temperature TEE is a piecewise constant function of the temperature, with possible discontinuities only at phase transitions. We then consider phase transitions of CSS codes. We claim that there must exist a phase transition at zero temperature for any CSS codes in 2D and 3D with topological order. This statement can be rigorous proved for some familiar examples, while for general models it can be argued based on the low-temperature expansion. This indicates the break down of topological orders at finite temperature. We also discuss possible connections with self-correcting quantum memory.