Topological order and long range quantum entanglements

F. D. M. Haldane

Xiao-Gang Wen

We review the progress in the last 20–30 years, during which we discovered that there are many new phases of matter that are beyond the traditional Landau symmetry breaking theory. We discuss new “topological” phenomena, such as topological degeneracy that reveals the existence of those new phases—topologically ordered phases. Just like zero viscosity defines the superfluid order, the new “topological” phenomena define the topological order at macroscopic level. More recently, we found that at the microscopical level, topological order is due to long-range quantum entanglements. Long-range quantum entanglements lead to many amazing emergent phenomena, such as fractional charges and fractional statistics. Long-range quantum entanglements can even provide a unified origin of light and electrons; light is a fluctuation of long-range entanglements, and electrons are defects in long-range entanglements.

Michael Mariën

Wei Wang

The essence of the famed long-range entanglement as revealed in topologically ordered state is the paradoxical coexistence of short-range correlation and nonlocal information that cannot be removed through constant-depth local quantum circuits. Its realization in different quantum states is a focus research topic in both quantum computation and quantum matter. However, the proved realizations are subject to the paradigm of topological order (including its extensions), i.e. via a quantum code structure with macroscopic code distance. Here, we broaden the knowledge of long-range entangled states by rigorously proving the coexistence in a new concrete state. The state describes qudits on the newly experimentally discovered fractal lattice geometry (1.58D) on which the quantum code structure has been shown not to exist, i.e., there is no topological order. Our result might reveal a new paradigm for the realization of the long-range entanglement in many-body quantum states, and might stimulate new studies connecting quantum information and quantum matter.

Dmitry Melnikov

Ravi Karki

In general, we know that there are four states of matter solid, liquid, gas and plasma. But there are much more states of matter. For e. g. there are ferromagnetic states of matter as revealed by the phenomenon of magnetization and superfluid states defined by the phenomenon of zero viscosity. The various phases in our colorful world are so rich that it is amazing that they can be understood systematically by the symmetry breaking theory of Landau. Topological phenomena define the topological order at macroscopic level. Topological order need new mathematical framework to describe it. More recently it is found that at microscopic level topological order is due to the long range quantum entanglement, just like the fermions fluid is due to the fermion-pair condensation. Long range quantum entanglement leads to many amazing emergent phenomena, such as fractional quantum numbers, non- Abelian statistics ad perfect conducting boundary channels. It can even provide a unified origin of light and electron i.e. gauge interactions and Fermi statistics. Light waves (gauge fields) are fluctuations of long range entanglement and electron (fermion) are defect of long range entanglements.The Himalayan Physics Vol. 6 & 7, April 2017 (108-111)