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Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Non-Abelian bosonization of topological insulators and superconductors

Yen-Ta Huang, D. H. Lee

Published Dec 19, 2022• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Applying the method of [Nucl. Phys. B 972, 115565 (2021)], which bosonizes massless relativistic free fermions, we derive the (non-Abelian) bosonized theory for free fermion topological insulators and superconductors that have, in addition to the U(1) charge, time reversal and charge conjugation symmetries and flavor symmetries. For the case we consider, the flavor symmetries render the topological classification $\mathbb{Z}$. The results are nonlinear $\ensuremath{\sigma}$ models with the topological $\ensuremath{\theta}$ term. In addition, we present the theory of a class of bosonic symmetry-protected topological states, whose boundaries are critical spin liquids.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.106.245130

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Applying the method of [Nucl. Phys. B 972, 115565 (2021)], which bosonizes massless relativistic free fermions, we derive the (non-Abelian) bosonized theory for free fermion topological insulators and superconductors that have, in addition to the U(1) charge, time reversal and charge conjugation symmetries and flavor symmetries. For the case we consider, the flavor symmetries render the topological classification Z\mathbb{Z}Z. The results are nonlinear \ensuremathσ\ensuremath{\sigma}\ensuremathσ models with the topological \ensuremathθ\ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremathθ term. In addition, we present the theory of a class of bosonic symmetry-protected topological states, whose boundaries are critical spin liquids.
Applying the results of Ref.[1], we carry out the non-abelian bosonization for a class of free fermion symmetry-protected topological states (SPTs). The resulting boson theories are non-linear sigma models with topological θθθ term, thus unifying the field theory description of the (free) fermionic and bosonic SPTs. Tuning θθθ from 000 to 2π2π2π triggers the topological trivial to non-trivial phase transitions. In addition, applying the same idea to the symmetry-protected critical spin liquids, we obtain the NL$\s$ models for spin SPTs living in one spatial dimension higher.
These lecture notes explain the classification of some simple fermionic topological phases of matter in a pedestrian manner, with an aim to be maximally pedagogical = doing things in excruciating detail. We focus on a many-body perspective, even if many of the models we work with are non-interacting. We start out with symmetry protected topological (SPT) phases of free fermions that are protected by U(1) symmetry = topological insulators. We then look at fermion topological phases that don’t even need a symmetry = topological superconductors, and explain how their classification changes in presence of spinless time-reversal symmetry. We close by perturbatively checking which of the 1D topological phases we had found are stable to interactions.
Symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases are gapped quantum phases with a certain symmetry, which can all be smoothly connected to the same trivial product state if we break the symmetry. For noninteracting fermion systems with time reversal ($\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{T}$), charge conjugation ($\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{C}$), and/or U(1)U(1)U(1) ($\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{N}$) symmetries, the total symmetry group can depend on the relations between those symmetry operations, such as $\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{T}\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{N}{\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{T}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}=\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{N}$ or $\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{T}\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{N}{\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{T}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}=\ensuremath{-}\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{N}$. As a result, the SPT phases of those fermion systems with different symmetry groups have different classifications. In this paper, we use Kitaev's K-theory approach to classify the gapped free-fermion phases for those possible symmetry groups. In particular, we can view the U(1)U(1)U(1) as a spin rotation. We find that superconductors with the Sz{S}_{z}Sz​ spin-rotation symmetry are classified by ZZZ in even dimensions, while superconductors with the time reversal plus the Sz{S}_{z}Sz​ spin-rotation symmetries are classified by ZZZ in odd dimensions. We show that all 10 classes of gapped free-fermion phases can be realized by electron systems with certain symmetries. We also point out that, to properly describe the symmetry of a fermionic system, we need to specify its full symmetry group that includes the fermion number parity transformation ${(\ensuremath{-})}^{\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{N}}$. The full symmetry group is actually a projective symmetry group.
We present a systematic topological classification of fermionic and bosonic topological phases protected by time-reversal, particle-hole, parity, and combination of these symmetries. We use two complementary approaches: one in terms of KKK-theory classification of gapped quadratic fermion theories with symmetries, and the other in terms of the KKK-matrix theory description of the edge theory of (2+1)-dimensional bulk theories. The first approach is specific to free fermion theories in general spatial dimensions while the second approach is limited to two spatial dimensions but incorporates effects of interactions. We also clarify the role of the CPT theorem in the classification of symmetry-protected topological phases, and show, in particular, that the topological superconductors discussed before are related by the CPT theorem.
Symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases are gapped short-range-entangled quantum phases with a symmetry GGG, which can all be smoothly connected to the trivial product states if we break the symmetry. It has been shown that a large class of interacting bosonic SPT phases can be systematically described by group cohomology theory. In this paper, we introduce a (special) group supercohomology theory which is a generalization of the standard group cohomology theory. We show that a large class of short-range interacting fermionic SPT phases can be described by the group supercohomology theory. Using the data of supercocycles, we can obtain the ideal ground state wave function for the corresponding fermionic SPT phase. We can also obtain the bulk Hamiltonian that realizes the SPT phase, as well as the anomalous (i.e., non-onsite) symmetry for the boundary effective Hamiltonian. The anomalous symmetry on the boundary implies that the symmetric boundary must be gapless for (1+1)-dimensional [(1+1)D] boundary, and must be gapless or topologically ordered beyond (1+1)D. As an application of this general result, we construct a new SPT phase in three dimensions, for interacting fermionic superconductors with coplanar spin order (which have T2=1{T}^{2}=1T2=1 time-reversal Z2T{Z}_{2}^{T}Z2T​ and fermion-number-parity Z2f{Z}_{2}^{f}Z2f​ symmetries described by a full symmetry group ${Z}_{2}^{T}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{Z}_{2}^{f}$). Such a fermionic SPT state can neither be realized by free fermions nor by interacting bosons (formed by fermion pairs), and thus are not included in the KKK-theory classification for free fermions or group cohomology description for interacting bosons. We also construct three interacting fermionic SPT phases in two dimensions (2D) with a full symmetry group ${Z}_{2}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{Z}_{2}^{f}$. Those 2D fermionic SPT phases all have central-charge c=1c=1c=1 gapless edge excitations, if the symmetry is not broken.
Recently, there is a considerable study on gapped symmetric phases of bosons that do not break any symmetry. Even without symmetry breaking, the bosons can still be in many exotic new states of matter, such as symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases, which are short-range entangled and symmetry-enriched topological (SET) phases, which are long-range entangled. It is well known that noninteracting fermionic topological insulators are SPT states protected by time-reversal symmetry and U(1) fermion number conservation symmetry. In this paper, we construct three-dimensional exotic phases of bosons with time-reversal symmetry and boson number conservation U(1) symmetry by means of fermionic projective construction. We first construct an algebraic bosonic insulator, which is a symmetric bosonic state with an emergent U(1) gapless gauge field. We then obtain many gapped bosonic states that do not break the time-reversal symmetry and boson number conservation via proper dyon condensations. We identify the constructed states by calculating the allowed electric and magnetic charges of their excitations, as well as the statistics and the symmetric transformation properties of those excitations. This allows us to show that our constructed states can be trivial SPT states (i.e., trivial Mott insulators of bosons with symmetry), nontrivial SPT states (i.e., bosonic topological insulators), and SET states (i.e., fractional bosonic topological insulators). In nontrivial SPT states, the elementary monopole (carrying zero electric charge but unit magnetic charge) and elementary dyon (carrying both unit electric charge and unit magnetic charge) are fermionic and bosonic, respectively. In SET states, intrinsic excitations may carry fractional charge.