Chiral Phases on the Lattice

Abstract

While chiral quantum field theories (QFTs) describe a wide range of physical systems, from the standard model to topological quantum matter, the realization of chiral QFTs on a lattice has proved to be difficult due to the Nielsen-Ninomiya theorem and the possible presence of quantum anomalies. In this thesis, we use the connection between chiral phases of matter and chiral quantum field theories (QFTs) to define chiral QFTs on a lattice and allow a huge class of exotic field theories to be simulated numerically. Our work builds on the ‘mirror fermion’ approach to the problem of defining chiral theories on a lattice, which defines chiral field theories as the edge modes of chiral phases. We begin by reviewing the deep connections between chiral phases of matter, chiral field theories, and anomalies. We then develop numerical treatments of an 𝑆𝑈(2) chiral field theory, and provide a semiclassically solvable definition of Abelian 2+1 chiral topological orders. This leads to an exactly solvable definition of chiral 𝑈(1) SPT phases with zero correlation length, which we use to extract the edge chiral field theories exactly. These zero-correlation length models are vastly more simple than previous approaches to defining chiral field theories on the lattice.