Antiunitary Symmetry Research Articles

Eightfold quantum Hall phases in a time reversal symmetry broken tight binding model

We consider a time reversal symmetry (TRS) broken Kane-Mele model superimposed with Haldane model and chart out the phase diagram using spin Chern number to investigate the fate of quantum anomalous Hall insulator (QAHI) and quantum spin Hall insulator (QSHI) phases. Interestingly, in addition to QSHI and QAHI phase, the phase diagram unveils quantum anomalous spin Hall insulator (QASHI) phase where only one spin sector is topological. We also find multicritical points where three / four topological phase boundaries coalesce. These topological phases are protected by an effective TRS and a composite anti-unitary particle-hole symmetry leading to remarkable properties of edge modes. We find spin-selective, spin-polarized and spin-neutral edge transport in QASHI, QSHI and QAHI phases respectively. Our study indicates that the robustness of the topological phase mainly depends on the spin gap which does not necessarily vanish at the Dirac points across a topological phase transition. We believe that our proposals can be tested in near future using recent experimental advancements in solid state and cold atomic systems.

A Hamiltonian approach for obtaining irreducible projective representations and the k ⋅ p perturbation for anti-unitary symmetry groups

As is known, the irreducible projective representations (Reps) of anti-unitary groups contain three different situations, namely, the real, the complex and quaternionic types with torsion number 1, 2, 4 respectively. This subtlety increases the complexity in obtaining irreducible projective Reps of anti-unitary groups. In the present work, a physical approach is introduced to derive the condition of irreducibility for projective Reps of anti-unitary groups. Then a practical procedure is provided to reduce an arbitrary projective Rep into direct sum of irreducible ones. The central idea is to construct a Hermitian Hamiltonian matrix which commutes with the representation of every group element g ∈ G, such that each of its eigenspaces forms an irreducible representation space of the group G. Thus the Rep is completely reduced in the eigenspaces of the Hamiltonian. This approach is applied in the k ⋅ p effective theory at the high symmetry points (HSPs) of the Brillouin zone for quasi-particle excitations in magnetic materials. After giving the criterion to judge the power of single-particle dispersion around an HSP, we then provide a systematic procedure to construct the k ⋅ p effective model.

Anomaly constraint on chiral central charge of (2+1)d topological order

In this short paper, we argue that the chiral central charge c− of a (2+1)d topological ordered state is sometimes strongly constrained by 't Hooft anomaly of antiunitary global symmetry. For example, if a (2+1)d fermionic topological quantum field theory (TQFT) has a time-reversal anomaly with T2=(−1)F labeled as ν∈Z16, the TQFT must have c−=1/4 mod 1/2 for odd ν, while c−=0 mod 1/2 for even ν. This generalizes the fact that the bosonic TQFT with T anomaly in a particular class must carry c−=4 mod 8 to fermionic cases. We also study such a constraint for fermionic TQFT with U(1)×CT symmetry, which is regarded as a gapped surface of the topological superconductor in class AIII.Received 5 January 2021Revised 16 March 2021Accepted 12 April 2021DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.023107Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.Published by the American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasSymmetry protected topological statesTopological field theoriesTopological superconductorsCondensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Symmetries of abelian Chern-Simons theories and arithmetic

We determine the unitary and anti-unitary Lagrangian and quantum symmetries of arbitrary abelian Chern-Simons theories. The symmetries depend sensitively on the arithmetic properties (e.g. prime factorization) of the matrix of Chern-Simons levels, revealing interesting connections with number theory. We give a complete characterization of the symmetries of abelian topological field theories and along the way find many theories that are non-trivially time-reversal invariant by virtue of a quantum symmetry, including U(1)k Chern-Simons theory and (ℤk)ℓ gauge theories. For example, we prove that U(1)k Chern-Simons theory is time-reversal invariant if and only if −1 is a quadratic residue modulo k, which happens if and only if all the prime factors of k are Pythagorean (i.e., of the form 4n + 1), or Pythagorean with a single additional factor of 2. Many distinct non-abelian finite symmetry groups are found.

Unwinding fermionic symmetry-protected topological phases: Supersymmetry extension

We show how $1+1$-dimensional fermionic symmetry-protected topological states (SPTs, i.e., nontrivial short-range entangled gapped phases of quantum matter whose boundary exhibits 't Hooft anomaly and whose bulk cannot be deformed into a trivial tensor product state under finite-depth local unitary transformations only in the presence of global symmetries), indeed can be unwound to a trivial state by enlarging the Hilbert space via adding extra degrees of freedom and suitably extending the global symmetries. The extended projective global symmetry on the boundary can become supersymmetric in a specific sense, i.e., it contains group elements that do not commute with the fermion number parity ${(\ensuremath{-}1)}^{F}$, while the antiunitary time-reversal symmetry becomes fractionalized. This also means we can uplift and remove certain exotic fermionic anomalies (e.g., ``parity'' anomaly in time-reversal or reflection symmetry) via appropriate supersymmetry extensions in terms of group extensions. We work out explicit examples for multilayers of $1+1\mathrm{d}$ Majorana fermion chains, then comment on models with Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) interactions, intrinsic fermionic gapless SPTs protected by supersymmetry, and generalizations to higher space-time dimensions via a cobordism theory.

Odd-Parity Spin-Triplet Superconductivity in Centrosymmetric Antiferromagnetic Metals.

We propose a route to achieve odd-parity spin-triplet (OPST) superconductivity in metallic collinear antiferromagnets with inversion symmetry. Owing to the existence of hidden antiunitary symmetry, which we call the effective time-reversal symmetry (eTRS), the Fermi surfaces of ordinary antiferromagnetic metals are generally spin degenerate, and spin-singlet pairing is favored. However, by introducing a local inversion symmetry breaking perturbation that also breaks the eTRS, we can lift the degeneracy to obtain spin-polarized Fermi surfaces. In the weak-coupling limit, the spin-polarized Fermi surfaces constrain the electrons to form spin-triplet Cooper pairs with odd parity. Interestingly, all the odd-parity superconducting ground states we obtained host nontrivial band topologies manifested as chiral topological superconductors, second-order topological superconductors, and nodal superconductors. We propose that double perovskite oxides with collinear antiferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic ordering, such as SrLaVMoO_{6}, are promising candidate systems where our theoretical ideas can be applied to.

Floquet second order topological superconductor based on unconventional pairing

We theoretically investigate the Floquet generation of second-order topological superconducting (SOTSC) phase in the high-temperature platform both in two-dimension (2D) and three-dimension (3D). Starting from a $d$-wave superconducting pairing gap, we periodically kick the mass term to engineer the dynamical SOTSC phase within a specific range of the strength of the drive. Under such dynamical breaking of time-reversal symmetry (TRS), we show the emergence of the \textit{weak} SOTSC phase, harboring eight corner modes \ie two zero-energy Majorana per corner, with vanishing Floquet quadrupole moment. On the other hand, our study interestingly indicates that upon the introduction of an explicit TRS breaking Zeeman field, the \textit{weak} SOTSC phase can be transformed into \textit{strong} SOTSC phase, hosting one zero-energy Majorana mode per corner, with quantized quadrupole moment. We also compute the Floquet Wannier spectra that further establishes the \textit{weak} and \textit{strong} nature of these phases. We numerically verify our protocol computing the exact Floquet operator in open boundary condition and then analytically validate our findings with the low energy effective theory (in the high-frequency limit). The above protocol is applicable for 3D as well where we find one dimensional (1D) hinge mode in the SOTSC phase. We then show that these corner modes are robust against moderate disorder and the topological invariants continue to exhibit quantized nature until disorder becomes substantially strong. The existence of zero-energy Majorana modes in these higher-order phases is guaranteed by the anti-unitary spectral symmetry.

Floquet generation of a second-order topological superconductor

We theoretically investigate the Floquet generation of a second-order topological superconducting (SOTSC) phase hosting Majorana corner modes (MCMs), considering a quantum spin Hall insulator with a proximity-induced superconducting $s$-wave pairing in it. Our dynamical prescription consists of the periodic kick in time-reversal symmetry breaking the in-plane magnetic field and fourfold rotational symmetry breaking the mass term in the bulk while these Floquet MCMs are preserved by antiunitary particle-hole symmetry. The first driving protocol always leads to four zero-energy MCMs (i.e., one Majorana state per corner) as a sign of a strong SOTSC phase. Interestingly, the second protocol can result in a weak SOTSC phase, harboring eight zero-energy MCMs (two Majorana states per corner), in addition to the strong SOTSC phase. We characterize the topological nature of these phases by a Floquet quadrupolar moment and Floquet Wannier spectrum. We believe that relying on the recent experimental advancement in the driven systems and proximity - superconductivity, our schemes may be possible to test in the future.

Statistics of the spectral form factor in the self-dual kicked Ising model

We compute the full probability distribution of the spectral form factor in the self-dual kicked Ising model by providing an exact lower bound for each moment and verifying numerically that the latter is saturated. We show that at large enough times the probability distribution agrees exactly with the prediction of Random Matrix Theory if one identifies the appropriate ensemble of random matrices. We find that this ensemble is not the circular orthogonal one - composed of symmetric random unitary matrices and associated with time-reversal-invariant evolution operators - but is an ensemble of random matrices on a more restricted symmetric space (depending on the parity of the number of sites this space is either ${Sp(N)/U(N)}$ or ${O(2N)/{O(N)\!\times\!O(N)}}$). Even if the latter ensembles yield the same averaged spectral form factor as the circular orthogonal ensemble they show substantially enhanced fluctuations. This behaviour is due to a recently identified additional anti-unitary symmetry of the self-dual kicked Ising model.

Peierls-phase-induced topological semimetals in an optical lattice: Moving of Dirac points, anisotropy of Dirac cones, and hidden symmetry protection

We propose a square optical lattice in which some of neighbor hoppings have a Peierls phase. The Peierls phase makes the lattice have a special band structure and induces the existence of Dirac points in the Brillouin zone, which means that topological semimetals exist in the system. The Dirac points move with the change of the Peierls phase and the Dirac cones are anisotropic for some vales of the Peierls phase. The lattice has a novel hidden symmetry, which is a composite antiunitary symmetry composed of a translation operation, a sublattice exchange, a complex conjugation, and a local U(1) gauge transformation. We prove that the Dirac points are protected by the hidden symmetry and perfectly explain the moving of Dirac points with the change of the Peierls phase based on the hidden symmetry protection.

Absolute anomalies in (2+1)D symmetry-enriched topological states and exact (3+1)D constructions

Certain patterns of symmetry fractionalization in (2+1)D topologically ordered phases of matter can be anomalous, which means that they possess an obstruction to being realized in purely (2+1)D. In this paper we demonstrate how to compute the anomaly for symmetry-enriched topological (SET) states of bosons in complete generality. We demonstrate how, given any unitary modular tensor category (UMTC) and symmetry fractionalization class for a global symmetry group $G$, one can define a (3+1)D topologically invariant path integral in terms of a state sum for a $G$ symmetry-protected topological (SPT) state. We present an exactly solvable Hamiltonian for the system and demonstrate explicitly a (2+1)D $G$ symmetric surface termination that hosts deconfined anyon excitations described by the given UMTC and symmetry fractionalization class. We present concrete algorithms that can be used to compute anomaly indicators in general. Our approach applies to general symmetry groups, including anyon-permuting and anti-unitary symmetries. In addition to providing a general way to compute the anomaly, our result also shows, by explicit construction, that every symmetry fractionalization class for any UMTC can be realized at the surface of a (3+1)D SPT state. As a byproduct, this construction also provides a way of explicitly seeing how the algebraic data that defines symmetry fractionalization in general arises in the context of exactly solvable models. In the case of unitary orientation-preserving symmetries, our results can also be viewed as providing a method to compute the $\mathcal{H}^4(G, U(1))$ obstruction that arises in the theory of $G$-crossed braided tensor categories, for which no general method has been presented to date.

Algebraic treatment of non-Hermitian quadratic Hamiltonians

We generalize a recently proposed algebraic method in order to treat non-Hermitian Hamiltonians. The approach is applied to several quadratic Hamiltonians studied earlier by other authors. Instead of solving the Schrodinger equation we simply obtain the eigenvalues of a suitable matrix representation of the operator. We take into account the existence of unitary and antiunitary symmetries in the quantum-mechanical problem.

Algebraic units, anti-unitary symmetries, and a small catalogue of SICs

In complex vector spaces maximal sets of equiangular lines, known as SICs, are related to real quadratic number fields in a dimension dependent way. If the dimension is of the form n^2+3, the base field has a fundamental unit of negative norm, and there exists a SIC with anti-unitary symmetry. We give eight examples of exact solutions of this kind, for which we have endeavoured to make them as simple as we can---as a belated reply to the referee of an earlier publication, who claimed that our exact solution in dimension 28 was too complicated to be fit to print. An interesting feature of the simplified solutions is that the components of the fiducial vectors largely consist of algebraic units.

Classification of symmetry-protected topological many-body localized phases in one dimension

We provide a classification of symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases of many-body localized (MBL) spin and fermionic systems in one dimension. For spin systems, using tensor networks we show that all eigenstates of these phases have the same topological index as defined for SPT ground states. For unitary on-site symmetries, the MBL phases are thus labeled by the elements of the second cohomology group of the symmetry group. A similar classification is obtained for anti-unitary on-site symmetries, time-reversal symmetry being a special case with a classification (see [Wahl 2018 Phys. Rev. B 98 054204]). For the classification of fermionic MBL phases, we propose a fermionic tensor network diagrammatic formulation. We find that fermionic MBL systems with an (anti-)unitary symmetry are classified by the elements of the (generalized) second cohomology group if parity is included into the symmetry group. However, our approach misses a topological index expected from the classification of fermionic SPT ground states. Finally, we show that all found phases are stable to arbitrary symmetry-preserving local perturbations. Conversely, different topological phases must be separated by a transition marked by delocalized eigenstates. Finally, we demonstrate that the classification of spin systems is complete in the sense that there cannot be any additional topological indices pertaining to the properties of individual eigenstates, but there can be additional topological indices that further classify Hamiltonians.

Stability of zero-energy Dirac touchings in the honeycomb Hofstadter problem

We study the band structure of electrons hopping on a honeycomb lattice with 1/q (q integer) flux quanta through each elementary hexagon. In the nearest neighbor hopping model the two bands that eventually form the n = 0 Landau level have 2q zero energy Dirac touchings. In this work, we study the conditions needed for these Dirac points and their stability to various perturbations. We prove that these touchings and their locations are guaranteed by a combination of an anti-unitary particle-hole symmetry and the lattice symmetries of the honeycomb structure. We also study the stability of the Dirac touchings to one-body perturbations that explicitly lower the symmetry.

Majorana modes in multiband superconducting quantum wires

We calculate analytically the spectrum of the Andreev bound states in a half-infinite superconducting wire with an arbitrary number of bands crossing the chemical potential. The normal state of the wire is assumed to have an antiunitary symmetry A (time reversal or its combination with a crystallographic point group operation), with A^2=-1 or +1. This symmetry may be broken by the superconducting order parameter and/or the boundary scattering. We present a model-independent proof of the existence of one Majorana mode near the end of the wire with an odd number of bands.

Fermion parity switches of the ground state of Majorana billiards

Majorana billiards are finitely sized, arbitrarily shaped superconducting islands that host Majorana bound states. We study the fermion-parity switches of the ground state of Majorana billiards. In particular, we study the density and statistics of these fermion-parity switches as a function of applied magnetic field and chemical potential. We derive formulae that specify how the average density of fermion-parity switches depends on the geometrical shape the billiard. Moreover, we show how oscillations around this average value is determined by the classical periodic orbits of the billiard. Finally, we find that the statistics of the spacings of these fermion-parity switches are universal and are described by a random matrix ensemble, the choice of which depends on the antiunitary symmetries of the system in its normal state. We thus demonstrate that "one can hear (information about) the shape of a Majorana billiard" by investigating its "fermion-parity switch spectrum".

Antiunitary symmetry protected higher-order topological phases

Higher-order topological (HOT) phases feature boundary (such as corner and hinge) modes of codimension $d_c>1$. We here identify an \emph{antiunitary} operator that ensures the spectral symmetry of a two-dimensional HOT insulator and the existence of cornered localized states ($d_c=2$) at precise zero energy. Such an antiunitary symmetry allows us to construct a generalized HOT insulator that continues to host corner modes even in the presence of a \emph{weak} anomalous Hall insulator and a spin-orbital density wave orderings, and is characterized by a quantized quadrupolar moment $Q_{xy}=0.5$. Similar conclusions can be drawn for the time-reversal symmetry breaking HOT $p+id$ superconductor and the corner localized Majorana zero modes survive even in the presence of weak Zeeman coupling and $s$-wave pairing. Such HOT insulators also serve as the building blocks of three-dimensional second-order Weyl semimetals, supporting one-dimensional hinge modes.

On a model for rotational tunneling with a $$C_{6}$$-space-time symmetric analog

We analyze the simple model of a rigid rotor with $$C_{3}$$ symmetry and show that the use of parity simplifies considerably the calculation of its eigenvalues. We also consider a non-Hermitian space-time-symmetric counterpart that exhibits real eigenvalues and determine the exceptional point at which the antiunitary symmetry is broken.

Symmetry Breaking in Coupled SYK or Tensor Models

We study a large $N$ tensor model with $O(N)^3$ symmetry containing two flavors of Majorana fermions, $\psi_1^{abc}$ and $\psi_2^{abc}$. We also study its random counterpart consisting of two coupled Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev models, each one containing $N_{\rm SYK}$ Majorana fermions. In these models we assume tetrahedral quartic Hamiltonians which depend on a real coupling parameter $\alpha$. We find a duality relation between two Hamiltonians with different values of $\alpha$, which allows us to restrict the model to the range of $-1\leq \alpha\leq 1/3$. The scaling dimension of the fermion number operator $Q=i\psi_1^{abc} \psi_2^{abc}$ is complex and of the form $1/2 +i f(\alpha)$ in the range $-1\leq \alpha<0$, indicating an instability of the conformal phase. Using Schwinger-Dyson equations to solve for the Green functions, we show that in the true low-temperature phase this operator acquires an expectation value. This demonstrates the breaking of an anti-unitary particle-hole symmetry and other discrete symmetries. We also calculate spectra of the coupled SYK models for values of $N_{\rm SYK}$ where exact diagonalizations are possible. For negative $\alpha$ we find a gap separating the two lowest energy states from the rest of the spectrum; this leads to exponential decay of the zero-temperature correlation functions. For $N_{\rm SYK}$ divisible by $4$, the two lowest states have a small splitting. They become degenerate in the large $N_{\rm SYK}$ limit, as expected from the spontaneous breaking of a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry.