Topological solid phase in a quantum dimer model

TL;DR

This paper investigates a phase transition in a quantum dimer model on a triangular lattice, revealing a topological transition characterized by entanglement entropy and vison correlations, which challenges traditional phase transition paradigms.

Contribution

It provides the first characterization of a topological solid phase transition in a quantum dimer model using topological entanglement entropy and vison correlation functions.

Findings

Topological entanglement entropy changes from ln 2 to 0 at the transition

Vison condensate develops at the topological transition point

Topological order coexists with conventional symmetry breaking order

Abstract

We present an example for the phase transition between a topological non-trivial solid phase and a trivial solid phase in the quantum dimer model(QDM) on triangular lattice. Such a transition is beyond the Landau's paradigm of phase transition. We have characterized such a transition with the topological entanglement entropy(TEE) of the system, which is found to change from $\gamma=\ln 2$ in the topological solid phase to zero in the trivial solid phase, through a pronounced peak around the transition point. We also calculated the correlation function of the vison excitation in the QDM and find that the vison condensate develops right at the topological transition point. These results imply that the topological order and the related fractionalized excitation can coexist with conventional symmetry breaking order.