Quantum orders in an exact soluble model

We find all the exact eigenstates and eigenvalues of a spin-1/2 model on square lattice: $H=16g \sum_i S^y_i S^x_{i+x} S^y_{i+x+y} S^x_{i+y}$. We show that the ground states for $g0$ have different quantum orders described by Z2A and Z2B projective symmetry groups. The phase transition at $g=0$ represents a new kind of phase transitions that changes quantum orders but not symmetry. Both the Z2A and Z2B states are described by $Z_2$ lattice gauge theories at low energies. They have robust topologically degenerate ground states and gapless edge excitations.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX4, More materials on topological/quantum orders and quantum computing can be found in http://dao.mit.edu/~we

Anharmonic force field and vibrational frequencies of tetrafluoromethane (CF4_4) and tetrafluorosilane (SiF4_4)

Accurate quartic anharmonic force fields for CF$_4$ and SiF$_4$ have been calculated using the CCSD(T) method and basis sets of $spdf$ quality. Based on the {\it ab initio} force field with a minor empirical adjustment, the vibrational energy levels of these two molecules and their isotopomers are calculated by means of high order Canonical Van Vleck Perturbation Theory(CVPT) based on curvilinear coordinates. The calculated energies agree very well with the experimental data. The full quadratic force field of CF$_4$ is further refined to the experimental data. The symmetrization of the Cartesian basis for any combination bands of $T_d$ group molecules is discussed using the circular promotion operator for the doubly degenerate modes, together with tabulated vector coupling coefficients. The extraction of the spectroscopic constants from our second order transformed Hamiltonian in curvilinear coordinates is discussed, and compared to a similar procedure in rectilinear coordinates.Comment: (submitted to J. Chem. Phys.

Symmetry protected topological orders of 1D spin systems with D2+T symmetry

In [Z.-X. Liu, M. Liu, X.-G. Wen, arXiv:1101.5680], we studied 8 gapped symmetric quantum phases in S=1 spin chains %/ladders which respect a discrete spin rotation $D_2 \subset SO(3)$ and time reversal $T$ symmetries. In this paper, using a generalized approach, we study all the 16 possible gapped symmetric quantum phases of 1D integer spin systems with only $D_2+T$ symmetry. Those phases are beyond Landau symmetry breaking theory and cannot be characterized by local order parameters, since they do not break any symmetry. They correspond to 16 symmetry protected topological (SPT) orders. We show that all the 16 SPT orders can be fully characterized by the physical properties of the symmetry protected degenerate boundary states (end `spins') at the ends of a chain segment. So we can measure and distinguish all the 16 SPT orders experimentally. We also show that all these SPT orders can be realized in S=1 spin ladder models. The gapped symmetric phases protected by subgroups of $D_2+T$ are also studied. Again, all these phases can be distinguished by physically measuring their end `spins'.Comment: 10+page

String and Membrane condensation on 3D lattices

In this paper, we investigate the general properties of lattice spin models that have string and/or membrane condensed ground states. We discuss the properties needed to define a string or membrane operator. We study three 3D spin models which lead to Z_2 gauge theory at low energies. All the three models are exactly soluble and produce topologically ordered ground states. The first model contains both closed-string and closed-membrane condensations. The second model contains closed-string condensation only. The ends of open-strings behave like fermionic particles. The third model also has condensations of closed membranes and closed strings. The ends of open strings are bosonic while the edges of open membranes are fermionic. The third model contains a new type of topological order.Comment: 10 pages, RevTeX

Topological surface states in three-dimensional magnetic insulators

An electron moving in a magnetically ordered background feels an effective magnetic field that can be both stronger and more rapidly varying than typical externally applied fields. One consequence is that insulating magnetic materials in three dimensions can have topologically nontrivial properties of the effective band structure. For the simplest case of two bands, these "Hopf insulators" are characterized by a topological invariant as in quantum Hall states and Z_2 topological insulators, but instead of a Chern number or parity, the underlying invariant is the Hopf invariant that classifies maps from the 3-sphere to the 2-sphere. This paper gives an efficient algorithm to compute whether a given magnetic band structure has nontrivial Hopf invariant, a double-exchange-like tight-binding model that realizes the nontrivial case, and a numerical study of the surface states of this model.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; published versio

Translation-symmetry protected topological orders on lattice

In this paper we systematically study a simple class of translation-symmetry protected topological orders in quantum spin systems using slave-particle approach. The spin systems on square lattice are translation invariant, but may break any other symmetries. We consider topologically ordered ground states that do not spontaneously break any symmetry. Those states can be described by Z2A or Z2B projective symmetry group. We find that the Z2A translation symmetric topological orders can still be divided into 16 sub-classes corresponding to 16 new translation-symmetry protected topological orders. We introduced four $Z_2$ topological indices $\zeta_{\v{k}}=0,1$ at $\v {k}=(0,0)$, $(0,\pi)$, $(\pi, 0)$, $(\pi ,\pi)$ to characterize those 16 new topological orders. We calculated the topological degeneracies and crystal momenta for those 16 topological phases on even-by-even, even-by-odd, odd-by-even, and odd-by-odd lattices, which allows us to physically measure such topological orders. We predict the appearance of gapless fermionic excitations at the quantum phase transitions between those symmetry protected topological orders. Our result can be generalized to any dimensions. We find 256 translation-symmetry protected Z2A topological orders for a system on 3D lattice

Tensor-product representations for string-net condensed states

We show that general string-net condensed states have a natural representation in terms of tensor product states (TPS) . These TPS's are built from local tensors. They can describe both states with short-range entanglement (such as the symmetry breaking states) and states with long-range entanglement (such as string-net condensed states with topological/quantum order). The tensor product representation provides a kind of 'mean-field' description for topologically ordered states and could be a powerful way to study quantum phase transitions between such states. As an attempt in this direction, we show that the constructed TPS's are fixed-points under a certain wave-function renormalization group transformation for quantum states.Comment: 11 pages. RevTeX

Quantum ether: photons and electrons from a rotor model

We give an example of a purely bosonic model -- a rotor model on the 3D cubic lattice -- whose low energy excitations behave like massless U(1) gauge bosons and massless Dirac fermions. This model can be viewed as a ``quantum ether'': a medium that gives rise to both photons and electrons. It illustrates a general mechanism for the emergence of gauge bosons and fermions known as ``string-net condensation.'' Other, more complex, string-net condensed models can have excitations that behave like gluons, quarks and other particles in the standard model. This suggests that photons, electrons and other elementary particles may have a unified origin: string-net condensation in our vacuum.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, RevTeX4. Home page http://dao.mit.edu/~we

Tensor product representation of topological ordered phase: necessary symmetry conditions

The tensor product representation of quantum states leads to a promising variational approach to study quantum phase and quantum phase transitions, especially topological ordered phases which are impossible to handle with conventional methods due to their long range entanglement. However, an important issue arises when we use tensor product states (TPS) as variational states to find the ground state of a Hamiltonian: can arbitrary variations in the tensors that represent ground state of a Hamiltonian be induced by local perturbations to the Hamiltonian? Starting from a tensor product state which is the exact ground state of a Hamiltonian with $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological order, we show that, surprisingly, not all variations of the tensors correspond to the variation of the ground state caused by local perturbations of the Hamiltonian. Even in the absence of any symmetry requirement of the perturbed Hamiltonian, one necessary condition for the variations of the tensors to be physical is that they respect certain $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry. We support this claim by calculating explicitly the change in topological entanglement entropy with different variations in the tensors. This finding will provide important guidance to numerical variational study of topological phase and phase transitions. It is also a crucial step in using TPS to study universal properties of a quantum phase and its topological order.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure