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Field-Theory Representation of Gauge-Gravity Symmetry-Protected Topological Invariants, Group Cohomology, and Beyond

Author(s)
Gu, Zheng-Cheng; Wen, Xiao-Gang; Wang, Juven
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Abstract
The challenge of identifying symmetry-protected topological states (SPTs) is due to their lack of symmetry-breaking order parameters and intrinsic topological orders. For this reason, it is impossible to formulate SPTs under Ginzburg-Landau theory or probe SPTs via fractionalized bulk excitations and topology-dependent ground state degeneracy. However, the partition functions from path integrals with various symmetry twists are universal SPT invariants, fully characterizing SPTs. In this work, we use gauge fields to represent those symmetry twists in closed spacetimes of any dimensionality and arbitrary topology. This allows us to express the SPT invariants in terms of continuum field theory. We show that SPT invariants of pure gauge actions describe the SPTs predicted by group cohomology, while the mixed gauge-gravity actions describe the beyond-group-cohomology SPTs. We find new examples of mixed gauge-gravity actions for U(1) SPTs in (4 + 1)D via the gravitational Chern-Simons term. Field theory representations of SPT invariants not only serve as tools for classifying SPTs, but also guide us in designing physical probes for them. In addition, our field theory representations are independently powerful for studying group cohomology within the mathematical context.
Date issued
2015-01
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/93175
Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Journal
Physical Review Letters
Publisher
American Physical Society
Citation
Wang, Juven C., Zheng-Cheng Gu, and Xiao-Gang Wen. "Field-Theory Representation of Gauge-Gravity Symmetry-Protected Topological Invariants, Group Cohomology, and Beyond." Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 031601 (January 2015). © 2015 American Physical Society
Version: Final published version
ISSN
0031-9007
1079-7114

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