Shadows of anyons and the entanglement structure of topological phases

Autor(en)

J. Haegeman, V. Zauner, Norbert Schuch, F. Verstraete

Abstrakt

The low-temperature dynamics of quantum systems are dominated by the low-energy eigenstates. For two-dimensional systems in particular, exotic phenomena such as topological order and anyon excitations can emerge. While a complete low-energy description of strongly correlated systems is hard to obtain, essential information about the elementary excitations is encoded in the eigenvalue structure of the quantum transfer matrix. Here we study the transfer matrix of topological quantum systems using the tensor network formalism and demonstrate that topological quantum order requires a particular type of symmetry breakinga for the fixed point subspace. We also relate physical anyon excitations to domain-wall excitations at the level of the transfer matrix. This formalism enables us to determine the structure of the topological sectors in two-dimensional gapped phases very efficiently, therefore opening novel avenues for studying fundamental questions related to anyon condensation and confinement.

Organisation(en)

Quantenoptik, Quantennanophysik und Quanteninformation

Externe Organisation(en)

Ghent University , Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen

Journal

Nature Communications

Band

6

Anzahl der Seiten

8

ISSN

2041-1723

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9284

Publikationsdatum

10-2015

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

103024 Quantenfeldtheorie, 103025 Quantenmechanik

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Allgemeine Physik und Astronomie, Allgemeine Chemie, Allgemeine Biochemie, Genetik und Molekularbiologie

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/4edc86d8-57f2-4ed1-9997-0ff6859fbe8b