Symmetry-protected topological phases with charge and spin symmetries: response theory and dynamical gauge theory in 2D, 3D and the surface of 3D

By definition, the physics of the $d-$dimensional (dim) boundary of a $(d+1)-$dim symmetry protected topological (SPT) state cannot be realized as itself on a $d-$dim lattice. If the symmetry of the system is unitary, then a formal way to determine whether a $d-$dim theory must be a boundary or not, is to couple this theory to a gauge field (or to "gauge" its symmetry), and check if there is a gauge anomaly. In this paper we discuss the following question: can the boundary of...

We calculate the topological part of the electromagnetic response of Bosonic Integer Quantum Hall (BIQH) phases in odd (spacetime) dimensions, and Bosonic Topological Insulator (BTI) and Bosonic chiral semi-metal (BCSM) phases in even dimensions. To do this we use the Nonlinear Sigma Model (NLSM) description of bosonic symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases, and the method of gauged Wess-Zumino (WZ) actions. We find the surprising result that for BIQH states in dimension...

We consider compact $U^\kappa(1)$ gauge theory in 3+1D with the $2\pi$-quantized topological term ${\sum_{I, J =1}^\kappa\frac{K_{IJ}}{4\pi}\int_{M^4}F^I\wedge F^J}$. At energies below the gauge charges' gaps but above the monopoles' gaps, this field theory has an emergent ${\mathbb{Z}_{k_1}^{(1)}\times\mathbb{Z}_{k_2}^{(1)}\times\cdots}$ 1-symmetry, where $k_i$ are the diagonal elements of the Smith normal form of $K$ and $\mathbb{Z}_{0}^{(1)}$ is regarded as $U(1)^{(1)}$. I...

We study the response of quantum many-body systems to coupling some of their degrees of freedom to external gauge fields. This serves to understand the current Green functions and transport properties of interacting many-body systems. Our analysis leads to a "gauge theory of states of matter" complementary to the well known Landau theory of order parameters. We illustrate the power of our approach by deriving and interpreting the gauge-invariant effective actions of (topologi...

Intrinsically gapless symmetry protected topological phases (igSPT) are gapless systems with SPT edge states with properties that could not arise in a gapped system with the same symmetry and dimensionality. igSPT states arise from gapless systems in which an anomaly in the low-energy (IR) symmetry group emerges from an extended anomaly-free microscopic (UV) symmetry We construct a general framework for constructing lattice models for igSPT phases with emergent anomalies clas...

We propose a general approach to construct symmetry protected topological (SPT) states i.e the short-range entangled states with symmetry) in 2D spin/boson systems on lattice. In our approach, we fractionalize spins/bosons into different fermions, which occupy nontrivial Chern bands. After the Gutzwiller projection of the free fermion state obtained by filling the Chern bands, we can obtain SPT states on lattice. In particular, we constructed a U(1) SPT state of a spin-1 mode...

We discuss several bosonic topological phases in (3+1) dimensions enriched by a global $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry, and gauging the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry. More specifically, following the spirit of the bulk-boundary correspondence, expected to hold in topological phases of matter in general, we consider boundary (surface) field theories and their orbifold. From the surface partition functions, we extract the modular $\mathcal{S}$ and $\mathcal{T}$ matrices and compare them with...

We derive a series of quantitative bulk-boundary correspondences for 3D bosonic and fermionic symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases under the assumption that the surface is gapped, symmetric and topologically ordered, i.e., a symmetry-enriched topological (SET) state. We consider those SPT phases that are protected by the mirror symmetry and continuous symmetries that form a group of $U(1)$, $SU(2)$ or $SO(3)$. In particular, the fermionic cases correspond to a crystall...

This paper begins with a summary of a powerful formalism for the study of electronic states in condensed matter physics called "Gauge Theory of States/Phases of Matter." The chiral anomaly, which plays quite a prominent role in that formalism, is recalled. I then sketch an application of the chiral anomaly in 1+1 dimensions to quantum wires. Subsequently, some elements of the quantum Hall effect in two-dimensional (2D) gapped ("incompressible") electron liquids are reviewed. ...

Classification and construction of symmetry protected topological (SPT) phases in interacting boson and fermion systems have become a fascinating theoretical direction in recent years. It has been shown that the (generalized) group cohomology theory or cobordism theory can give rise to a complete classification of SPT phases in interacting boson/spin systems. Nevertheless, the construction and classification of SPT phases in interacting fermion systems are much more complicat...