Self-dual Higgs transitions: Toric code and beyond

TL;DR

This paper develops a continuum field theory for self-dual Higgs transitions in topological phases, generalizing to a series of theories that describe transitions involving various non-Abelian topological orders.

Contribution

It introduces the $SO(4)_{k,-k}$ Chern-Simons-Higgs theories as a continuum description of self-dual Higgs transitions, extending understanding beyond the specific case to a broader class of topological orders.

Findings

Proposes the $SO(4)_{2,-2}$ CSH theory as a natural mean-field description.

Generalizes the theory to $SO(4)_{k,-k}$ for integer $k$, describing different topological orders.

Conjectures the $k=1$ case is dual to the 3D Ising transition.

Abstract

The toric code, when deformed in a way that preserves the self-duality $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry exchanging the electric and magnetic excitations, admits a transition to a topologically trivial state that spontaneously breaks the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry. Numerically, this transition was found to be continuous, which makes it particularly enigmatic given the longstanding absence of a continuum field-theoretic description. In this work we propose such a continuum field theory for the transition dubbed the $SO(4)_{2,-2}$ Chern-Simons-Higgs (CSH) theory. We show that our field theory provides a natural "mean-field" understanding of the phase diagram. Moreover, it can be generalized to an entire series of theories, namely the $SO(4)_{k,-k}$ CSH theories, labeled by an integer $k$. For each $k>2$, the theory describes an analogous transition involving different non-Abelian topological orders, such as the double Fibonacci order ($k=3$) and the $S_3$ quantum double ($k=4$). For $k=1$, we conjecture that the corresponding CSH transition is in fact infrared-dual to the $3d$ Ising transition, in close analogy with the particle-vortex duality of a complex scalar.