Fracton topological phases from strongly coupled spin chains

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new way to understand fracton topological phases by constructing them from strongly coupled spin chains, linking theoretical models to potential experimental realizations.

Contribution

It presents a systematic method to build fracton phases from coupled spin chains and connects these models to parton constructions, using only two-spin interactions.

Findings

Fracton phases can be constructed from intersecting spin chains.

The approach simplifies understanding of fracton properties.

Potential for experimental realization with two-spin models.

Abstract

We provide a new perspective on fracton topological phases, a class of three-dimensional topologically ordered phases with unconventional fractionalized excitations that are either completely immobile or only mobile along particular lines or planes. We demonstrate that a wide range of these fracton phases can be constructed by strongly coupling mutually intersecting spin chains and explain via a concrete example how such a coupled-spin-chain construction illuminates the generic properties of a fracton phase. In particular, we describe a systematic translation from each coupled-spin-chain construction into a parton construction where the partons correspond to the excitations that are mobile along lines. Remarkably, our construction of fracton phases is inherently based on spin models involving only two-spin interactions and thus brings us closer to their experimental realization.