The structure of braid groups on topologically nontrivial surfaces is reviewed. The physical meaning of the braid relations and their implications on quantum mechanical properties of anyonic quasiparticles are discussed. These include not only the exotic statistics of anyons but also the Aharonov-Bohm effect for the anyons on a surface with holes. Several results on the novel properties of anyons or their states, which were previously derived by microscopic considerations, are reproduced by this seemingly kinematic and topology-dependent braid group analysis. It is suggested that in the thermodynamic limit, the global excitations in a system on a surface of nontrivial topology do not interfere with properties of local anyonic quasiparticles.
The structure of braid groups on topologically nontrivial surfaces is reviewed. The physical meaning of the braid relations and their implications on quantum mechanical properties of anyonic quasiparticles are discussed. These include not only the exotic statistics of anyons but also the Aharonov-Bohm effect for the anyons on a surface with holes. Several results on the novel properties of anyons or their states, which were previously derived by microscopic considerations, are reproduced by this seemingly kinematic and topology-dependent braid group analysis. It is suggested that in the thermodynamic limit, the global excitations in a system on a surface of nontrivial topology do not interfere with properties of local anyonic quasiparticles.
The structure of braid groups on topologically nontrivial surfaces is reviewed. The physical meaning of the braid relations and their implications on quantum mechanical properties of anyonic quasiparticles are discussed. These include not only the restrictions on statistics of anyons but also the Aharonov-Bohm effect for the anyons on a surface with holes. Several results on the novel properties of anyons of their states, which were previously derived by microscopic considerations, are reproduced by this seemingly kinematic but topology dependent braid group analysis. It is suggested than in the thermodynamic limit, the global excitations in a system on a surface of nontrivial topology do not interfere with properties of local anyonic quasiparticles.
A paradigm to build a quantum computer, based on topological invariants is highlighted. The identities in the ensemble of knots, links and braids originally discovered in relation to topological quantum field theory are shown: how they define Artin braid group -- the mathematical basis of topological quantum computation (TQC). Vector spaces of TQC correspond to associated strings of particle interactions, and TQC operates its calculations on braided strings of special physical quasiparticles -- anyons -- with non-Abelian statistics. The physical platform of TQC is to use the topological quantum numbers of such small groups of anyons as qubits and to perform operations on these qubits by exchanging the anyons, both within the groups that form the qubits and, for multi-qubit gates, between groups. By braiding two or more anyons, they acquire up a topological phase or Berry phase similar to that found in the Aharonov-Bohm effect. Topological matter such as fractional quantum Hall systems and novel discovered topological insulators open the way to form system of anyons -- Majorana fermions -- with the unique property of encoding and processing quantum information in a naturally fault-tolerant way. In the topological insulators, due to its fundamental attribute of topological surface state occurrence of the bound, Majorana fermions are generated at its heterocontact with superconductors. One of the key operations of TQC -- braiding of non-Abelian anyons: it is illustrated how it can be implemented in one-dimensional topological isolator wire networks.
Strongly interacting topologically ordered many-body systems consisting of fermions or bosons can host exotic quasiparticles with anyonic statistics. This raises the question whether many-body systems of anyons can also form anyonic quasiparticles. Here we show that one can, indeed, construct many-anyon wave functions with anyonic quasiparticles. The braiding statistics of the emergent anyons are different from those of the original anyons. We investigate hole-type and particle-type anyonic quasiparticles in Abelian systems on a two-dimensional lattice and compute the density profiles and braiding properties of the emergent anyons by employing Monte Carlo simulations.
Topological phases are gapped quantum phases of matter classified beyond the paradigm of Landau's symmetry breaking theory. In particular, topologically ordered phases are topological phases with topological order. Unlike the conventional symmetry-breaking order described by local order parameter, topological order is characterized by the excitations. For example, in (2+1)D topologically ordered phases, there are particle-like excitations called anyons. In contrast, in (3+1)D topologically ordered phases, there are both particle-like and loop-like excitations. These excitations exhibit braiding statistics, meaning that carrying one excitation adiabatically around another transform the ground state by a phase (or generally a unitary transformation). The braiding statistics of these excitations serves as a crucial ingredient in characterizing the topological order in these phases. One important aspect is to understand the braiding statistics in topologically ordered phases. While the anyonic braiding statistics in (2+1)D topologically ordered phases is well established, the braiding statistics in (3+1)D topologically ordered phases is far from clear. In (3+1)D, the most well-understood braiding statistics is the particle-loop braiding statistics, where a particle winds around a loop excitation acquires an Aharonov Bohm phase. In the thesis, we introduce a new braiding statistics, which we called the Borromean-Rings braiding statistics. It is a particle-loop-loop braiding statistics where a particle travels around two unlinked loops acquires a braiding phase. Unlike the particle-loop braiding, the particle trajectory in the Borromean-Rings braiding is not linked with any of the two loops. Another important aspect is to probe the topological order in topologically ordered phases. One usual way to probe the topological order is to examine the properties of the phases on various orientable surfaces. For example, for (2+1)D topologically ordered phases, the number of degenerate ground states on Torus counts the number of anyons. Also, ground state transformation under twisting the torus encodes the braiding data. In the thesis, we attempt to probe the topological order by putting the phases on non-orientable surfaces. We find that the ground state degeneracy and the ground state transformation reveals a special kind of anyons, called the parity symmetric anyons, which show a lost of orientation in their braiding statistics. They in turn distinguish different topological order. Even without topological order, there can be non-trivial topological phases in the presence of global symmetry. These topological phases are called the symmetry protected topological phases. For example, (3+1)D fermionic matter with time reversal symmetry and charge conservation symmetry has a non-trivial phase, namely the topological insulators. While the bulk of the topological insulators behaves like trivial insulators, the surface is anomalous with odd number of massless dirac fermions. While most of the understanding of topological insulators is developed upon the free fermion picture, such phase survives under interaction. In the thesis, we derive hydrodynamic field theory for the topological insulators by functional bosonization. Such formulation is robust against interaction. In addition, by suitably incorporating electron interactions, we predict new topological phases, called the fractional topological insulators. Besides, the surface theory of topological insulators also justify the famous duality between free massless dirac fermion and QED_3.
Topological phases in two dimensions support anyonic quasiparticle excitations that obey neither bosonic nor fermionic statistics. These anyon structures often carry global symmetries that relate distinct anyons with similar fusion and statistical properties. Anyonic symmetries associate topological defects or fluxes in topological phases. As the symmetries are global and static, these extrinsic defects are semiclassical objects that behave disparately from conventional quantum anyons. Remarkably, even when the topological states supporting them are Abelian, they are generically non-Abelian and powerful enough for topological quantum computation. In this article, I review the most recent theoretical developments on symmetries and defects in topological phases.
We present a careful construction of anyons on a torus starting with the braid-group analysis. The rules of Wen, Dagotto, and Fradkin for putting anyons on a torus are reproduced with some minor improvements. The existence of noncontractible loops leads to braid-group representations characterized not only by anyon statistics \ensuremath{\theta} but also by the magnetic fluxes ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Phi}}}_{\mathit{x}}$ and ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Phi}}}_{\mathit{y}}$ threading through the holes of the torus. The three parameters are tangled with each other. We explore the symmetries of the torus to separate the effects of ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Phi}}}_{\mathit{x}}$ and ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Phi}}}_{\mathit{y}}$ from those of \ensuremath{\theta}. It is shown that the anyon system always has a smaller period \ensuremath{\theta}/\ensuremath{\pi} in ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Phi}}}_{\mathit{x}}$ and ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Phi}}}_{\mathit{y}}$ than the natural period 1. We perform several numerical calculations to investigate the spectral flow and consistency of the method and find interesting features in the spectral flow, which are relevant in understanding the fractional quantum Hall effect.