Emergence & Entanglement II 2013

I will discuss recent work on 3d Symmetry Protected Topological (SPT) phases of bosonic systems, and their implications for understanding the more exotic quantum spin liquid phases. First I will describe various characterizations of these 3d SPT phases, in particular their surface effective theories…

In two spatial dimensions, there is a good correspondence between TQFTs and topological phases of matter for spin systems. I will discuss this correspondence in one and three spatial dimensions for spin systems. If time permits, I will also discuss the situation for fermion systems.

We investigate possible quantum spin liquid phases in the presence of a variety of spin-rotational-symmetry breaking perturbations. Projective symmetry group analysis on slave-particle representations is used to understand possible spin liquid phases on the Kagome lattice. The results of this…

Anyon models can be symmetric under some permutations of their topological charges. One can then conceive topological defects that, under monodromy, transform anyons according to a symmetry. We study the realization of such defects in the toric code model, showing that a process where defects are…

Large zero point motion of light atoms in solid Helium 4 leads to several anomalous properties, including a supersolid type behavior. We suggest an `anisotropic quantum melted' atom density wave model for solid He4 with hcp symmetry. Here, atoms preferentially quantum melt along the c-axis and…

Some 2D quantum many-body systems with a bulk energy gap support gapless edge modes which are extremely robust. These modes cannot be gapped out or localized by general classes of interactions or disorder at the edge: they are "protected" by the structure of the bulk phase. Examples of this…

The E8 state of bosons is a 2+1d gapped phase of matter which has no topological entanglement entropy but has protected chiral edge states in the absence of any symmetry. This peculiar state is interesting in part because it sits at the boundary between short- and long-range entangled phases of…

Electron topological insulators are members of a broad class of “symmetry protected topological” (SPT) phases of fermions and bosons which possess distinctive surface behavior protected by bulk symmetries. For 1d and 2d SPT’s the surfaces are either gapless or symmetry broken, while in 3d, gapped…

We study the non-abelian statistics characterizing systems where counter-propagating gapless modes on the edges of fractional quantum Hall states are gapped by proximity-coupling to superconductors and ferromagnets. The most transparent example is that of a fractional quantum spin Hall state, in…

The existence of three generations of neutrinos and their mass mixing is a deep mystery of our universe. On the other hand, Majorana's elegant work on the real solution of Dirac equation predicted the existence of Majorana particles in our nature, unfortunately, these Majorana particles have never…

I will discuss a family of solvable 3D lattice models that have a ``trivial" bulk, in which all excitations are confined, but exhibit topologically ordered surface states. I will discuss perturbations to these models that can drive a phase transition in which some of these excitations become…