Abstract
We present general symmetry arguments that show the appearance of doubly degenerate states protected from external perturbations in a wide class of Hamiltonians. We construct the simplest spin Hamiltonian belonging to this class and study its properties both analytically and numerically. We find that this model generally has a number of low energy modes which might destroy the protection in the thermodynamic limit. These modes are qualitatively different from the usual gapless excitations as their number scales as the linear size (instead of volume) of the system. We show that the Hamiltonians with this symmetry can be physically implemented in Josephson junction arrays and that in these arrays one can eliminate the low energy modes with a proper boundary condition. We argue that these arrays provide fault tolerant quantum bits. Further we show that the simplest spin model with this symmetry can be mapped to a very special ${\mathbb{Z}}_{2}$ Chern-Simons model on the square lattice. We argue that appearance of the low energy modes and the protected degeneracy is a natural property of lattice Chern-Simons theories. Finally, we discuss a general formalism for the construction of discrete Chern-Simons theories on a lattice.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.