Symmetry-protected topological phases and quantum anomalies

Symmetry-protected topological phases;Topological insulators and superconductors;Classification;Strongly correlated systems;Quantum anomalies;Orientifold conformal field theories;Discrete gauge anomalies;"t Hooft anomalies"]

Hsieh, Chang-Tse

关键词: Symmetry-protected topological phases;    Topological insulators and superconductors;    Classification;    Strongly correlated systems;    Quantum anomalies;    Orientifold conformal field theories;    Discrete gauge anomalies;    "t Hooft anomalies"];   

Others  :  https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/98272/HSIEH-DISSERTATION-2017.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

美国|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

We present the correspondence between symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases and their anomalous boundary states, based on examples in various spacetime dimensions. Through the study of the effect of interactions on these SPT phases, we discovered a new formalism of quantum anomalies, associated with discrete spacetime (such as time-reversal and spatial reflection) symmetries in particular, to classify distinct interacting topological phases. An example is the Z2 classification of the (2+1)d topological insulator protected by charge U(1) and time-reversal (or CP) symmetries, which can be deduced by the form of the global U(1) gauge anomalies on its edge theories defined on closed unorientable manifolds. In this case, the nontrivial phase (in free systems) is robust against electron interactions. Another example is the (3+1)d topological superconductor protected by only time-reversal or reflection symmetry. For this system, we identified the bulk phase by studying the global gravitational anomalies of the surface theories formulated on unorientable spacetime manifolds, and also discussed its connection to the collapse of the non-interacting classification by an integer Z to Z16, in the presence of interactions.We also revisit the problem of gauging a discrete internal symmetry in theories of chiral (Weyl) fermions in 3+1 dimensions – which have not been fully understood so far – from the perspective of fermionic SPT phases in 4+1 dimensions. Comparing with the previous results, we give a complete answer for the anomalies constraints on the discrete symmetry, as our approach is based on purely geometrical considerations, namely, our assumption is more fundamental and general. Furthermore, our result also provides an understanding of gapped states of fermions with anomalous discrete symmetries, and we present a model, based on weak coupling, for constructing these anomalous gapped states.