Gapped quantum liquids and topological order, stochastic local transformations and emergence of unitarity

In this work we present some new understanding of topological order, including three main aspects: (1) It was believed that classifying topological orders corresponds to classifying gapped quantum states. We show that such a statement is not precise. We introduce the concept of \emph{gapped quantum liquid} as a special kind of gapped quantum states that can "dissolve" any product states on additional sites. Topologically ordered states actually correspond to gapped quantum liquids with stable ground-state degeneracy. Symmetry-breaking states for on-site symmetry are also gapped quantum liquids, but with unstable ground-state degeneracy. (2) We point out that the universality classes of generalized local unitary (gLU) transformations (without any symmetry) contain both topologically ordered states and symmetry-breaking states. This allows us to use a gLU invariant -- topological entanglement entropy -- to probe the symmetry-breaking properties hidden in the exact ground state of a finite system, which does not break any symmetry. This method can probe symmetry- breaking orders even without knowing the symmetry and the associated order parameters. (3) The universality classes of topological orders and symmetry-breaking orders can be distinguished by \emph{stochastic local (SL) transformations} (i.e.\ \emph{local invertible transformations}): small SL transformations can convert the symmetry-breaking classes to the trivial class of product states with finite probability of success, while the topological-order classes are stable against any small SL transformations, demonstrating a phenomenon of emergence of unitarity. This allows us to give a new definition of long-range entanglement based on SL transformations, under which only topologically ordered states are long-range entangled.Comment: Revised version. Figures and references adde

Holographic Van der Waals phase transition for a hairy black hole

The Van der Waals(VdW) phase transition in a hairy black hole is investigated by analogizing its charge, temperature, and entropy as the temperature, pressure, and volume in the fluid respectively. The two point correlation function(TCF), which is dual to the geodesic length, is employed to probe this phase transition. We find the phase structure in the temperature$-$geodesic length plane resembles as that in the temperature$-$thermal entropy plane besides the scale of the horizontal coordinate. In addition, we find the equal area law(EAL) for the first order phase transition and critical exponent of the heat capacity for the second order phase transition in the temperature$-$geodesic length plane are consistent with that in temperature$-$thermal entropy plane, which implies that the TCF is a good probe to probe the phase structure of the back hole.Comment: Accepted by Advances in High Energy Physics(The special issue: Applications of the Holographic Duality to Strongly Coupled Quantum Systems

Holographic thermalization with a chemical potential in Gauss-Bonnet gravity

Holographic thermalization is studied in the framework of Einstein-Maxwell-Gauss-Bonnet gravity. We use the two-point correlation function and expectation value of Wilson loop, which are dual to the renormalized geodesic length and minimal area surface in the bulk, to probe the thermalization. The numeric result shows that larger the Gauss-Bonnet coefficient is, shorter the thermalization time is, and larger the charge is, longer the thermalization time is, which implies that the Gauss-Bonnet coefficient can accelerate the thermalization while the charge has an opposite effect. In addition, we obtain the functions with respect to the thermalization time for both the thermalization probes at a fixed charge and Gauss-Bonnet coefficient, and on the basis of these functions, we obtain the thermalization velocity, which shows that the thermalization process is non-monotonic. At the middle and later periods of the thermalization process, we find that there is a phase transition point, which divides the thermalization into an acceleration phase and a deceleration phase. We also study the effect of the charge and Gauss-Bonnet coefficient on the phase transition point.Comment: 23 pages, many figures,footnote 4 is modified. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1305.484

Holographic thermalization in noncommutative geometry

Gravitational collapse of a shell of dust in noncommutative geometry is probed by the renormalized geodesic length, which is dual to probe the thermalization by the two-point correlation function in the dual conformal field theory. We find that larger the noncommutative parameter is, longer the thermalization time is, which implies that the large noncommutative parameter delays the thermalization process. We also investigate how the noncommutative parameter affects the thermalization velocity and thermalization acceleration.Comment: some materials have been delete