Fractionalization, topological order, and cuprate superconductivity

This paper is concerned with the idea that the electron is fractionalized in the cuprate high-$T_c$ materials. We show how the notion of topological order may be used to develop a precise theoretical characterization of a fractionalized phase in spatial dimension higher than one. Apart from the fractional particles into which the electron breaks apart, there are non-trivial gapped topological excitations - dubbed "visons". A cylindrical sample that is fractionalized exhibits two disconnected topological sectors depending on whether a vison is trapped in the "hole" or not. Indeed, "vison expulsion" is to fractionalization what the Meissner effect ("flux expulsion") is to superconductivity. This understanding enables us to address a number of conceptual issues that need to be confronted by any theory of the cuprates based on fractionalization ideas. We argue that whether or not the electron fractionalizes in the cuprates is a sharp and well-posed question with a definite answer. We elaborate on our recent proposal for an experiment to unambiguously settle this issue.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figure

Gapless Fermions and Quantum Order

Using 2D quantum spin-1/2 model as a concrete example, we studied the relation between gapless fermionic excitations (spinons) and quantum orders in some spin liquid states. Using winding number, we find the projective symmetry group that characterizes the quantum order directly determines the pattern of Fermi points in the Brillouin zone. Thus quantum orders provide an origin for gapless fermionic excitations.Comment: 23 pages. LaTeX. Homepage http://dao.mit.edu/~we

Spin-SS generalization of fractional exclusion statistics

We study fractional exclusion statistics for quantum systems with SU(2) symmetry (arbitrary spin $S$), by generalizing the thermodynamic equations with squeezed strings proposed by Ha and Haldane. The bare hole distributions as well as the statistical interaction defined by an infinite-dimensional matrix specify the universality class. It is shown that the system is described by the level-$2S$ WZW model and has a close relationship to non-abelian fractional quantum Hall states. As a low-energy effective theory, the sector of {\it massless} Z$_{2S}$ parafermions is extracted, whose statistical interaction is given by a finite-dimensional matrix.Comment: 11pages, REVTE

Bosonic model with Z3Z_3 fractionalization

Bosonic model with unfrustrated hopping and short-range repulsive interaction is constructed that realizes $Z_3$ fractionalized insulator phase in two dimensions and in zero magnetic field. Such phase is characterized as having gapped charged excitations that carry fractional electrical charge 1/3 and also gapped $Z_3$ vortices above the topologically ordered ground state.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Quantum Hall Ferromagnets

It is pointed out recently that the $\nu=1/m$ quantum Hall states in bilayer systems behave like easy plane quantum ferromagnets. We study the magnetotransport of these systems using their ``ferromagnetic" properties and a novel spin-charge relation of their excitations. The general transport is a combination of the ususal Hall transport and a time dependent transport with $quantized$ time average. The latter is due to a phase slippage process in $spacetime$ and is characterized by two topological constants. (Figures will be provided upon requests).Comment: 4 pages, Revtex, Ohio State Universit

Topological orders and Edge excitations in FQH states

Fractional quantum Hall (FQH) liquids contain extremely rich internal structures which represent a whole new kind of ordering. We discuss characterization and classification of the new orders (which is called topological orders). We also discuss the edge excitations in FQH liquids, which form the so-called chiral Luttinger liquids. The chiral Luttinger liquids at the edges also have very rich structures as a reflection of the rich topological orders in the bulk. Thus, edge excitations provide us a practical way to measure topological orders in experiments.Comment: 67 pages, plain-tex, 3 figures. The section about spin vector was rewritten to make it more readabl