@article {3144, title = {Codimension-2 defects and higher symmetries in (3+1)D topological phases}, year = {2022}, month = {8/15/2022}, abstract = {

(3+1)D topological phases of matter can host a broad class of non-trivial topological defects of codimension-1, 2, and 3, of which the well-known point charges and flux loops are special cases. The complete algebraic structure of these defects defines a higher category, and can be viewed as an emergent higher symmetry. This plays a crucial role both in the classification of phases of matter and the possible fault-tolerant logical operations in topological quantum error correcting codes. In this paper, we study several examples of such higher codimension defects from distinct perspectives. We mainly study a class of invertible codimension-2 topological defects, which we refer to as twist strings. We provide a number of general constructions for twist strings, in terms of gauging lower dimensional invertible phases, layer constructions, and condensation defects. We study some special examples in the context of Z2 gauge theory with fermionic charges, in Z2\×Z2 gauge theory with bosonic charges, and also in non-Abelian discrete gauge theories based on dihedral (Dn) and alternating (A6) groups. The intersection between twist strings and Abelian flux loops sources Abelian point charges, which defines an H4 cohomology class that characterizes part of an underlying 3-group symmetry of the topological order. The equations involving background gauge fields for the 3-group symmetry have been explicitly written down for various cases. We also study examples of twist strings interacting with non-Abelian flux loops (defining part of a non-invertible higher symmetry), examples of non-invertible codimension-2 defects, and examples of interplay of codimension-2 defects with codimension-1 defects. We also find an example of geometric, not fully topological, twist strings in (3+1)D A6 gauge theory.

}, keywords = {FOS: Mathematics, FOS: Physical sciences, High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th), Mathematical Physics (math-ph), Quantum Algebra (math.QA), Quantum Physics (quant-ph), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)}, doi = {10.48550/ARXIV.2208.07367}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.07367}, author = {Barkeshli, Maissam and Chen, Yu-An and Huang, Sheng-Jie and Kobayashi, Ryohei and Tantivasadakarn, Nathanan and Zhu, Guanyu} } @article {3193, title = {Pauli topological subsystem codes from Abelian anyon theories}, year = {2022}, month = {11/7/2022}, abstract = {

We construct Pauli topological subsystem codes characterized by arbitrary two-dimensional Abelian anyon theories--this includes anyon theories with degenerate braiding relations and those without a gapped boundary to the vacuum. Our work both extends the classification of two-dimensional Pauli topological subsystem codes to systems of composite-dimensional qudits and establishes that the classification is at least as rich as that of Abelian anyon theories. We exemplify the construction with topological subsystem codes defined on four-dimensional qudits based on the Z(1)4 anyon theory with degenerate braiding relations and the chiral semion theory--both of which cannot be captured by topological stabilizer codes. The construction proceeds by \"gauging out\" certain anyon types of a topological stabilizer code. This amounts to defining a gauge group generated by the stabilizer group of the topological stabilizer code and a set of anyonic string operators for the anyon types that are gauged out. The resulting topological subsystem code is characterized by an anyon theory containing a proper subset of the anyons of the topological stabilizer code. We thereby show that every Abelian anyon theory is a subtheory of a stack of toric codes and a certain family of twisted quantum doubles that generalize the double semion anyon theory. We further prove a number of general statements about the logical operators of translation invariant topological subsystem codes and define their associated anyon theories in terms of higher-form symmetries.

}, keywords = {FOS: Physical sciences, Quantum Physics (quant-ph), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)}, doi = {10.48550/ARXIV.2211.03798}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.03798}, author = {Ellison, Tyler D. and Chen, Yu-An and Dua, Arpit and Shirley, Wilbur and Tantivasadakarn, Nathanan and Williamson, Dominic J.} } @article {3012, title = {Three-dimensional quantum cellular automata from chiral semion surface topological order and beyond}, year = {2022}, month = {2/10/2022}, abstract = {

We construct a novel three-dimensional quantum cellular automaton (QCA) based on a system with short-range entangled bulk and chiral semion boundary topological order. We argue that either the QCA is nontrivial, i.e. not a finite-depth circuit of local quantum gates, or there exists a two-dimensional commuting projector Hamiltonian realizing the chiral semion topological order (characterized by U(1)2 Chern-Simons theory). Our QCA is obtained by first constructing the Walker-Wang Hamiltonian of a certain premodular tensor category of order four, then condensing the deconfined bulk boson at the level of lattice operators. We show that the resulting Hamiltonian hosts chiral semion surface topological order in the presence of a boundary and can be realized as a non-Pauli stabilizer code on qubits, from which the QCA is defined. The construction is then generalized to a class of QCAs defined by non-Pauli stabilizer codes on 2n-dimensional qudits that feature surface anyons described by U(1)2n Chern-Simons theory. Our results support the conjecture that the group of nontrivial three-dimensional QCAs is isomorphic to the Witt group of non-degenerate braided fusion categories.

}, keywords = {FOS: Physical sciences, Mathematical Physics (math-ph), Quantum Physics (quant-ph), Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)}, doi = {10.48550/ARXIV.2202.05442}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2202.05442}, author = {Shirley, Wilbur and Chen, Yu-An and Dua, Arpit and Ellison, Tyler D. and Tantivasadakarn, Nathanan and Williamson, Dominic J.} }