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

TL;DR

This paper investigates symmetry-protected topological phases with charge and spin symmetries in 2D and 3D, analyzing their electromagnetic responses, surface phenomena, and the emergence of symmetry-enriched topological phases via dynamical gauge theories.

Contribution

It systematically studies SPT states with charge and spin symmetries, applying response theory and gauge theory to reveal novel bulk and surface phenomena, including Witten effects and topological gauge theories.

Findings

Identification of Witten effects in 3D SPT bulk

Characterization of anomalous surface quantum Hall effects

Description of SET phases via dynamical topological gauge theories

Abstract

A large class of symmetry-protected topological phases (SPT) in boson / spin systems have been recently predicted by the group cohomology theory. In this work, we consider SPT states at least with charge symmetry (U(1) or Z$_N$) or spin $S^z$ rotation symmetry (U(1) or Z$_N$) in 2D, 3D, and the surface of 3D. If both are U(1), we apply external electromagnetic field / `spin gauge field' to study the charge / spin response. For the SPT examples we consider (i.e. U$_c$(1)$\rtimes$Z$^T_2$, U$_s$(1)$\times$Z$^T_2$, U$_c$(1)$\times$[U$_s$(1)$\rtimes$Z$_2$]; subscripts $c$ and $s$ are short for charge and spin; Z$^T_2$ and Z$_2$ are time-reversal symmetry and $\pi$-rotation about $S^y$, respectively), many variants of Witten effect in the 3D SPT bulk and various versions of anomalous surface quantum Hall effect are defined and systematically investigated. If charge or spin symmetry reduces to Z$_N$ by considering charge-$N$ or spin-$N$ condensate, instead of the linear response approach, we gauge the charge/spin symmetry, leading to a dynamical gauge theory with some remaining global symmetry. The 3D dynamical gauge theory describes a symmetry-enriched topological phase (SET), i.e. a topologically ordered state with global symmetry which admits nontrivial ground state degeneracy depending on spatial manifold topology. For the SPT examples we consider, the corresponding SET states are described by dynamical topological gauge theory with topological BF term and axionic $\Theta$-term in 3D bulk. And the surface of SET is described by the chiral boson theory with quantum anomaly.