Projective ribbon permutation statistics: A remnant of non-Abelian braiding in higher dimensions

Abstract

In a recent paper, Teo and Kane proposed a 3D model in which the defects support Majorana fermion zero modes. They argued that exchanging and twisting these defects would implement a set R of unitary transformations on the zero mode Hilbert space which is a 'ghostly' recollection of the action of the braid group on Ising anyons in 2D. In this paper, we find the group T_{2n} which governs the statistics of these defects by analyzing the topology of the space K_{2n} of configurations of 2n defects in a slowly spatially-varying gapped free fermion Hamiltonian: T_{2n}\equiv {\pi_1}(K_{2n})$. We find that the group T_{2n}= Z \times T^r_{2n}, where the 'ribbon permutation group' T^r_{2n} is a mild enhancement of the permutation group S_{2n}: T^r_{2n} \equiv \Z_2 \times E((Z_2)^{2n}\rtimes S_{2n}). Here, E((Z_2)^{2n}\rtimes S_{2n}) is the 'even part' of (Z_2)^{2n} \rtimes S_{2n}, namely those elements for which the total parity of the element in (Z_2)^{2n} added to the parity of the permutation is even. Surprisingly, R is only a projective representation of T_{2n}, a possibility proposed by Wilczek. Thus, Teo and Kane's defects realize `Projective Ribbon Permutation Statistics', which we show to be consistent with locality. We extend this phenomenon to other dimensions, co-dimensions, and symmetry classes. Since it is an essential input for our calculation, we review the topological classification of gapped free fermion systems and its relation to Bott periodicity.