Year: 2008
Type: article
Abstract: Two-dimensional quantum loop gases are elementary examples of topological ground states with Abelian or non-Abelian anyonic excitations. While Abelian loop gases appear as ground states of local, gapped Hamiltonians such as the toric code, we show that gapped non-Abelian loop gases require nonlocal interactions (or nontrivial inner products). Perturbing a local, gapless Hamiltonian with an anticipated "non-Abelian" ground-state wave function immediately drives the system into the Abelian phase, as can be seen by measuring the Hausdorff dimension of loops. Local quantum critical behavior is found in a loop gas in which all equal-time correlations of local operators decay exponentially.
Source: Physical Review Letters
Language: English
Topic: Quantum many-body systems
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2117129291