Extracting higher central charge from a single wave function

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to extract higher central charges from a single wavefunction using partial rotation operators, providing insights into edge gappability of (2+1)D topological phases, with applications to quantum computing.

Contribution

The authors develop a novel numerical approach to determine higher central charges from a single wavefunction, extending the understanding of edge obstructions in topological phases.

Findings

Higher central charges can be obtained from partial rotation expectation values.

The method applies to both Abelian and non-Abelian topological orders.

Numerical results confirm the theoretical predictions for specific models.

Abstract

A (2+1)D topologically ordered phase may or may not have a gappable edge, even if its chiral central charge $c_-$ is vanishing. Recently, it is discovered that a quantity regarded as a "higher" version of chiral central charge gives a further obstruction beyond $c_-$ to gapping out the edge. In this Letter, we show that the higher central charges can be characterized by the expectation value of the \textit{partial rotation} operator acting on the wavefunction of the topologically ordered state. This allows us to extract the higher central charge from a single wavefunction, which can be evaluated on a quantum computer. Our characterization of the higher central charge is analytically derived from the modular properties of edge conformal field theory, as well as the numerical results with the $\nu=1/2$ bosonic Laughlin state and the non-Abelian gapped phase of the Kitaev honeycomb model, which corresponds to $\mathrm{U}(1)_2$ and Ising topological order respectively. The letter establishes a numerical method to obtain a set of obstructions to the gappable edge of (2+1)D bosonic topological order beyond $c_-$, which enables us to completely determine if a (2+1)D bosonic Abelian topological order has a gappable edge or not. We also point out that the expectation values of the partial rotation on a single wavefunction put a constraint on the low-energy spectrum of the bulk-boundary system of (2+1)D bosonic topological order, reminiscent of the Lieb-Schultz-Mattis type theorems.