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Gapless Topological Phases and Symmetry-Enriched Quantum Criticality

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We introduce topological invariants for critical bosonic and fermionic chains. More generally, the symmetry properties of operators in the low-energy conformal field theory (CFT) provide discrete invariants, establishing the notion… Click to show full abstract

We introduce topological invariants for critical bosonic and fermionic chains. More generally, the symmetry properties of operators in the low-energy conformal field theory (CFT) provide discrete invariants, establishing the notion of symmetry-enriched quantum criticality. For nonlocal operators, these invariants are topological and imply the presence of localized edge modes. Depending on the symmetry, the finite-size splitting of this topological degeneracy can be exponential or algebraic in system size. An example of the former is given by tuning the spin-1 Heisenberg chain to an Ising phase. An example of the latter arises between the gapped Ising and cluster phases: this symmetry-enriched Ising CFT has an edge mode with finite-size splitting $\sim 1/L^{14}$. More generally, our formalism unifies various examples previously studied in the literature. Similar to gapped symmetry-protected topological phases, a given CFT can split into several distinct symmetry-enriched CFTs. This raises the question of classification, to which we give a partial answer---including a complete characterization of symmetry-enriched Ising CFTs.

Keywords: enriched quantum; phases symmetry; symmetry enriched; quantum criticality; topological phases; symmetry

Journal Title: Physical Review X
Year Published: 2021

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