We investigate the relation between local unitary symmetries and entanglement invariants of multi-qubit systems. The Hilbert space of such systems can be stratified in terms of states with different types of symmetry. We review the connection between this stratification and the ring of entanglement invariants and the corresponding geometric description in terms of algebraic varieties. On a stratum of a non-trivial symmetry group the invariants of the symmetry preserving operations gives a sufficient description of entanglement. Finding these invariants is often a simpler problem than finding the invariants of the local unitary group. The conditions, as given by the Luna–Richardson theorem, for when the ring of such invariants is isomorphic to the ring of local unitary invariants on the stratum are discussed. As an example we consider symmetry groups that can be diagonalized by local unitary operations and for which the group action on each qubit is non-trivial. On the stratum of such a symmetry the entanglement can be described in terms of a canonical form and the invariants of the symmetry preserving operations. This canonical form and the invariants are directly determined by the symmetry group. Further, we briefly discuss how some recently proposed entanglement classification schemes capture symmetry properties.
Symmetry plays an important role in the topological band theory to remedy the eigenstates' gauge obstruction at the cost of a symmetry anomaly and zero-energy boundary modes. One can also make use of the symmetry to enumerate the topological invariants---giving a symmetry classification table. Here we consider various topological phases protected by different symmetries and examine how the corresponding topological invariants evolve once the protecting symmetry is spontaneously lost. To our surprise, we find that the topological invariants and edge states can sometimes be robust to symmetry-breaking quantum orders. This topological robustness persists as long as the mean-field Hamiltonian in a symmetry-breaking ordered phase maintains its adiabatic continuity to the noninteracting Hamiltonian. For example, for a time-reversal symmetric topological phase in
2+1 dimensions, we show that the
Z2 time-reversal polarization continues to be a good topological invariant even after including distinct time-reversal breaking order parameters. Similar conclusions are drawn for various other symmetry-breaking cases. Finally, we discuss that the change in the internal symmetry associated with the spontaneous symmetry breaking has to be accounted for to reinstate the topological invariants into the expected classification table.
We introduce
Z2-valued bulk invariants for symmetry-protected topological phases in
2+1-dimensional driven quantum systems. These invariants adapt the
W3 invariant, expressed as a sum over degeneracy points of the propagator, to the respective symmetry class of the Floquet-Bloch Hamiltonian. The bulk-boundary correspondence that holds for each invariant relates a nonzero value of the bulk invariant to the existence of symmetry-protected topological boundary states. To demonstrate this correspondence we apply our invariants to a chiral Harper, time-reversal Kane-Mele, and particle-hole symmetric graphene model with periodic driving, where they successfully predict the appearance of boundary states that exist despite the trivial topological character of the Floquet bands. Especially for particle-hole symmetry, the combination of the
W3 and the
Z2 invariants allows us to distinguish between weak and strong topological phases.