Topological Quantum Liquids with Quaternion Non-Abelian Statistics

Abstract

Noncollinear magnetic order is typically characterized by a tetrad ground state manifold (GSM) of three perpendicular vectors or nematic directors. We study three types of tetrad orders in two spatial dimensions, whose GSMs are SO(3) = S(3)/Z(2), S(3)/Z(4), and S(3)/Q(8), respectively. Q(8) denotes the non-Abelian quaternion group with eight elements. We demonstrate that after quantum disordering these three types of tetrad orders, the systems enter fully gapped liquid phases described by Z(2), Z(4), and non-Abelian quaternion gauge field theories, respectively. The latter case realizes Kitaev's non-Abelian toric code in terms of a rather simple spin-1 SU(2) quantum magnet. This non-Abelian topological phase possesses a 22-fold ground state degeneracy on the torus arising from the 22 representations of the Drinfeld double of Q(8).