Exotic topological order in fractal spin liquids

We present a large class of three-dimensional spin models that possess topological order with stability against local perturbations, but are beyond description of topological quantum field theory. Conventional topological spin liquids, on a formal level, may be viewed as condensation of string-like extended objects with discrete gauge symmetries, being at fixed points with continuous scale symmetries. In contrast, ground states of fractal spin liquids are condensation of highly-fluctuating fractal objects with certain algebraic symmetries, corresponding to limit cycles under real-space renormalization group transformations which naturally arise from discrete scale symmetries of underlying fractal geometries. A particular class of three-dimensional models proposed in this paper may potentially saturate quantum information storage capacity for local spin systems.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figure

Topological phases with generalized global symmetries

We present simple lattice realizations of symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases with $q$-form global symmetries where charged excitations have $q$ spatial dimensions. Specifically, we construct $d$ space-dimensional models supported on a $(d+1)$-colorable graph by using a family of unitary phase gates, known as multi-qubit control-$Z$ gates in quantum information community. In our construction, charged excitations of different dimensionality may coexist and form a short-range entangled state which is protected by symmetry operators of different dimensionality. Non-triviality of proposed models, in a sense of quantum circuit complexity, is confirmed by studying protected boundary modes, gauged models and corresponding gapped domain walls. We also comment on applications of our construction to quantum error-correcting codes, and discuss corresponding fault-tolerant logical gates.Comment: 32 pages, 17 figures, single column (v2, corrected minor mistakes and typos, to appear in PRB

Topological Order and Memory Time in Marginally Self-Correcting Quantum Memory

We examine two proposals for marginally self-correcting quantum memory, the cubic code by Haah and the welded code by Michnicki. In particular, we prove explicitly that they are absent of topological order above zero temperature, as their Gibbs ensembles can be prepared via a short-depth quantum circuit from classical ensembles. Our proof technique naturally gives rise to the notion of free energy associated with excitations. Further, we develop a framework for an ergodic decomposition of Davies generators in CSS codes which enables formal reduction to simpler classical memory problems. We then show that memory time in the welded code is doubly exponential in inverse temperature via the Peierls argument. These results introduce further connections between thermal topological order and self-correction from the viewpoint of free energy and quantum circuit depth.Comment: 19 pages, 18 figure