Topological Test Spaces

Anatolij Dvurečenskij

Robin Giles

A discussion is given of the structure of a physical theory and an ``ideal form'' for such a theory is proposed. The essential feature is that all concepts should be defined in operational terms. Quantum (and classical) mechanics is then formulated in this way (the formulation being, however, restricted to the kinematical theory). This requires the introduction of the concept of a mixed test, related to a pure test (or ``question'') just as a mixed state is related to a pure state. In the new formulation, the primitive concepts are not states and observables but certain operationally accessible mixed states and tests called physical. The notion of a C*-system is introduced; each such system is characterized by a certain C*-algebra. The structure of a general C*-system is then studied, all concepts being defined in terms of physical states and tests. It is shown first how pure states and tests can be so defined. The quantum analog of the phase space of classical mechanics is then constructed and on it is built a mathematical structure, called a q-topology, which is a quantum analog of the topology of classical phase space. Mathematically, a q-topology is related to a noncommutative C*-algebra as an ordinary topology is related to a commutative C*-algebra. Some properties of the q-topology of a C*-system are given. An appendix contains some physically motivated examples illustrating the theory.

Apostol Vourdas

Semyon Klevtsov, Dimitri Zvonkine

We generalize the flux insertion argument due to Laughlin, Niu-Thouless-Tao-Wu, and Avron-Seiler-Zograf to the case of fractional quantum Hall states on a higher-genus surface. We propose this setting as a test to characterize the robustness, or topologicity, of the quantum state of matter and apply our test to the Laughlin states. Laughlin states form a vector bundle, the Laughlin bundle, over the Jacobian-the space of Aharonov-Bohm fluxes through the holes of the surface. The rank of the Laughlin bundle is the degeneracy of Laughlin states or, in the presence of quasiholes, the dimension of the corresponding full many-body Hilbert space; its slope, which is the first Chern class divided by the rank, is the Hall conductance. We compute the rank and all the Chern classes of Laughlin bundles for any genus and any number of quasiholes, settling, in particular, the Wen-Niu conjecture. Then we show that Laughlin bundles with nonlocalized quasiholes are not projectively flat and that the Hall current is precisely quantized only for the states with localized quasiholes. Hence our test distinguishes these states from the full many-body Hilbert space.

K. Birgitta Whaley

Tsuyoshi Shiina, Fumina Hamano, Takahiro Fukui

We extend Kitaev's real-space formulation of the first Chern number to the second Chern number and establish a computational framework for its evaluation. To test its validity, we apply the derived formula to the disordered Wilson-Dirac model and analyze its ability to capture topological properties in the presence of disorder. Our results demonstrate that the real-space approach provides a viable method for characterizing higher-dimensional topological phases beyond momentum-space formulations.