skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Title: Gauging U(1) symmetry in (2+1)d topological phases
We study the gauging of a global U(1) symmetry in a gapped system in(2+1)d. The gauging procedure has been well-understood for a finiteglobal symmetry group, which leads to a new gapped phase with emergentgauge structure and can be described algebraically using themathematical framework of modular tensor category (MTC). We develop acategorical description of U(1) gauging in a MTC, taking into accountthe dynamics of U(1) gauge field absent in the finite group case. Whenthe ungauged system has a non-zero Hall conductance, the gauged theoryremains gapped and we determine the complete set of anyon data for thegauged theory. On the other hand, when the Hall conductance vanishes, weargue that gauging has the same effect of condensing a special Abeliananyon nucleated by inserting 2\pi 2 π U(1) flux. We apply our procedure to theSU(2) _k k MTCs and derive the full MTC data for the \mathbb{Z}_k ℤ k parafermion MTCs. We also discuss a dual U(1) symmetry that emergesafter the original U(1) symmetry of an MTC is gauged.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1846109
PAR ID:
10400892
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
SciPost Physics
Volume:
12
Issue:
6
ISSN:
2542-4653
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. We investigate fractionalization of non-invertible symmetry in (2+1)D topological orders. We focus on coset non-invertible symmetries obtained by gauging non-normal subgroups of invertible0 0 -form symmetries. These symmetries can arise as global symmetries in quantum spin liquids, given by the quotient of the projective symmetry group by a non-normal subgroup as invariant gauge group. We point out that such coset non-invertible symmetries in topological orders can exhibit symmetry fractionalization: each anyon can carry a “fractional charge” under the coset non-invertible symmetry given by a gauge invariant superposition of fractional quantum numbers. We present various examples using field theories and quantum double lattice models, such as fractional quantum Hall systems with charge conjugation symmetry gauged and finite group gauge theory from gauging a non-normal subgroup. They include symmetry enrichedS_3 S 3 andO(2) O ( 2 ) gauge theories. We show that such systems have a fractionalized continuous non-invertible coset symmetry and a well-defined electric Hall conductance. The coset symmetry enforces a gapless edge state if the boundary preserves the continuous non-invertible symmetry. We propose a general approach for constructing coset symmetry defects using a “sandwich” construction: non-invertible symmetry defects can generally be constructed from an invertible defect sandwiched by condensation defects. The anomaly free condition for finite coset symmetry is also identified. 
    more » « less
  2. We present a family of electron-based coupled-wire models of bosonic orbifold topological phases, referred to as twist liquids, in two spatial dimensions. All local fermion degrees of freedom are gapped and removed from the topological order by many-body interactions. Bosonic chiral spin liquids and anyonic superconductors are constructed on an array of interacting wires, each supports emergent massless Majorana fermions that are non-local (fractional) and constitute the S O ( N ) Kac-Moody Wess-Zumino-Witten algebra at level 1. We focus on the dihedral D k symmetry of S O ( 2 n ) 1 , and its promotion to a gauge symmetry by manipulating the locality of fermion pairs. Gauging the symmetry (sub)group generates the C / G twist liquids, where G = Z 2 for C = U ( 1 ) l , S U ( n ) 1 , and G = Z 2 , Z k , D k for C = S O ( 2 n ) 1 . We construct exactly solvable models for all of these topological states. We prove the presence of a bulk excitation energy gap and demonstrate the appearance of edge orbifold conformal field theories corresponding to the twist liquid topological orders. We analyze the statistical properties of the anyon excitations, including the non-Abelian metaplectic anyons and a new class of quasiparticles referred to as Ising-fluxons. We show an eight-fold periodic gauging pattern in S O ( 2 n ) 1 / G by identifying the non-chiral components of the twist liquids with discrete gauge theories. 
    more » « less
  3. A<sc>bstract</sc> In this paper we discuss gauging noninvertible zero-form symmetries in two dimensions, extending our previous work. Specifically, in this work we discuss more general gauged noninvertible symmetries in which the noninvertible symmetry is not multiplicity free, and discuss the case of Rep(A4) in detail. We realize Rep(A4) gaugings for thec= 1 CFT at the exceptional point in the moduli space and find new self-duality under gauging a certain non-group algebra object, leading to a larger noninvertible symmetry Rep(SL(2, ℤ3)). We also discuss more general examples of decomposition in two-dimensional gauge theories with trivially-acting gauged noninvertible symmetries. 
    more » « less
  4. Based on several previous examples, we summarize explicitly thegeneral procedure to gauge models with subsystem symmetries, which aresymmetries with generators that have support within a sub-manifold ofthe system. The gauging process can be applied to any local quantummodel on a lattice that is invariant under the subsystem symmetry. Wefocus primarily on simple 3D paramagnetic states with planar symmetries.For these systems, the gauged theory may exhibit foliated fracton orderand we find that the species of symmetry charges in the paramagnetdirectly determine the resulting foliated fracton order. Moreover, wefind that gauging linear subsystem symmetries in 2D or 3D models resultsin a self-duality similar to gauging global symmetries in 1D. 
    more » « less
  5. In this study, we examine the quantization of Hall conductance in an infinite plane geometry. We consider a microscopic charge-conserving system with a pure, gapped infinite-volume ground state. While Hall conductance is well-defined in this scenario, existing proofs of its quantization have relied on assumptions of either weak interactions, or properties of finite volume ground state spaces, or invertibility. Here, we assume that the conditions necessary to construct the braided [Formula: see text]-tensor category which describes anyonic excitations are satisfied, and we demonstrate that the Hall conductance is rational if the tensor category is finite. 
    more » « less