No-go theorem for boson condensation in topologically ordered quantum liquids

Titus Neupert*, Huan He, Curt Von Keyserlingk, Germán Sierra, B. Andrei Bernevig

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)
127 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Certain phase transitions between topological quantum field theories (TQFTs) are driven by the condensation of bosonic anyons. However, as bosons in a TQFT are themselves nontrivial collective excitations, there can be topological obstructions that prevent them from condensing. Here we formulate such an obstruction in the form of a no-go theorem. We use it to show that no condensation is possible in SO(3)k TQFTs with odd k. We further show that a 'layered' theory obtained by tensoring SO(3)k TQFT with itself any integer number of times does not admit condensation transitions either. This includes (as the case k = 3) the noncondensability of any number of layers of the Fibonacci TQFT.

Original languageEnglish
Article number123009
JournalNew Journal of Physics
Volume18
Issue number12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2016

Keywords

  • Bose-Einstein condensation
  • topological order
  • topological quantum field theory

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Physics and Astronomy(all)

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