Boundary topological entanglement entropy in two and three dimensions (Q2071802)

The classification of topological phases is fundamental in the study of modern condensed matter physics [\textit{F. D. M. Haldane} and \textit{E. H. Rezayi}, ``Periodic Laughlin-Jastrow wave functions for the fractional quantized Hall effect'', Phys. Rev. B 31, No. 4, 2529--2531 (1985; \url{doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.31.2529}); \textit{X. G. Wen}, ``Vacuum degeneracy of chiral spin states in compactified space'', Phys. Rev. B 40, No. 10, 7387--739 (1989; \url{doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.40.7387}); \textit{X. G. Wen} and \textit{Q. Niu}, ``Ground-state degeneracy of the fractional quantum Hall states in the presence of a random potential and on high-genus Riemann surfaces'', Phys. Rev. B 41, No. 13, 9377--9396 (1990; \url{doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.41.9377}); \textit{X. G. Wen}, Quantum field theory of many-body systems. From the origin of sound to an origin of light and electrons. Oxford University Press (2010; \url{doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199227259.001.0001})]. An important class of topological phases are represented by topological loop-gas models [\textit{M. A. Levin} and \textit{X.-G. Wen}, ``String-net condensation: a physical mechanism for topological phases'', Phys. Rev. B 71, No. 4, Article ID 045110, 21 p. (2005; \url{doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.71.045110}); \textit{K. Walker} and \textit{Z. Wang}, ``(3+1)-TQFTs and topological insulators'', Front. Phys. 7, 150 (2012)], which can be defined in terms of an input unitary fusion category, and their ground states by superpositions of string diagrams labeled by objects from the category. The categorical framework provides a collection of local relations ensuring topological invariance of the ground states. In \(\left( 2+1\right) \)-dimensions, they are what are called \textit{Levin-Wen models} having point-like excitations, commonly called anyons, with non-trivial fusion rules as well as braid statistics, while, in \(\left( 3+1\right) \)-dimensions, the input category has to be equipped with a premodular braiding, leading to what are called \textit{Walker-Wang models} supporting point-like and loop-like excitations. Loop-gas models can be defined on manifolds with boundaries by modifying the local relations governing the strings in the vicinity of the boundary. This paper, using what are called algebras [\textit{Y. Hu} et al., J. High Energy Phys. 2018, No. 1, Paper No. 134, 41 p. (2018; Zbl 1384.81126); ``Boundary Hamiltonian theory for gapped topological orders'', Chin. Phys. Lett. 34, No. 7, Article ID 077103, 5 p. (2017; \url{doi:10.1088/0256-307X/34/7/077103})] captures the way in defining a boundary to a topological loop-gas where some strings are allowed to terminate on the boundary. Walker-Wang models may have highly non-trivial boundary excitations despite their bulk excitations. Supposing a sensible choice of bipartition, the entanglement entropy of the ground state of topological phases has a constant universal correlation [\textit{A. Hamma} et al., ``Bipartite entanglement and entropic boundary law in lattice spin systems'', Phys. Rev. A 71, No. 2, Article ID 022315, 10 p. (2005; \url{doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.71.022315})], which is known [\textit{A. Kitaev} and \textit{J. Preskill}, ``Topological entanglement entropy'', Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, No. 11, Article ID 110404, 4 p. (2006\url{doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.110404}); \textit{M. Levin} and \textit{X.-G. Wen}, ``Detecting topological order in a ground state wave function'', Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, No. 11, Article ID 110405, 4 p. (2006; \url{doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.110405})] to relate to the total quantum dimension of the quasiparticl excitations supported by the phase in \(\left( 2+1\right) \)-dimensions. Two diagnostics interrogate the long-range entanglement at the boundary of a \(\left( 3+1\right) \)-dimensional-dimensional topological phase, the behavior of the diagnostics being determined by making quite generic considerations of the support of creation operators for topological excitations without any knowledge of the underlying particle theory of the phase assumed [\textit{I. H. Kim} and \textit{B. J. Brown}, ``Ground-state entanglement constrains low-energy excitations'', Phys. Rev. B 92, No. 11, Article ID 115139, 11 p. (2015; \url{doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.92.115139})]. The diagnostics show a null outcome only if all the particles to be created at the boundary are of trivial braid statistics, while boundary topological order necessarily has to show positive topological entanglement entropy provided that quasi-particles demonstrating non-trivial braid statistics can be created. The above work tested the diagnostics at the different boundaries of the \(\left( 3+1\right) \)-dimensional-dimensional toric code, regrettably to fail to understand well the meaning of a positive outcome. From the input fusion category perspective, the topological entanglement entropies are to be understood as arising from constraints on the string flux passing through a surface, there being also additional correlations due to braiding. Allowing strings to terminate in the vicinity of a physical boundary alters the flux as well as braiding constraints in the vicinity, thereby altering the topological entropy. The principal objective in this paper is to obtain closed form expression for bulk and boundary topological entanglement entropy diagrams for topological loop-gas models, evaluating the entanglement entropy of various regions of ground states of Levin-Wen and Walker-Wang models, which requires careful analysis of various string diagrams. The authors examine how the inclusion of boundaries, via algebra objects, alter these diagrams and consequently the topological entropy. It is found that the entropy can be expressed in terms of the quantum dimension of the input category and the quantum dimension of the algebra object. The authors conjecture, establishing it in many cases, that, in the bulk of \(\left( 3+1\right) \)-dimensional models, the entropy is the logarithm of the total quantum dimension of the particle content of the theory, extending the results in [\textit{A. Bullivant} and \textit{J. K. Pachos}, ``Entropic manifestations of topological order in three dimensions'', Phys. Rev. B 93, No. 12, Article ID 125111, 7 p. (2016; \url{doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.93.125111})]. A synopsis of the paper goes as follows. \begin{itemize} \item \S 2 introduces some notation and minor results. \item \S 3 briefly reviews the models of interest, discussing the class of boundaries the authors consider. \item \S 4 elucidates the origin and meaning of topological entanglement entropy, defining the diagnostics used to detect boundary topological entanglement entropy. \item \S 5 computes the entropy of bulk regions for Levin-Wen models, discussing the additional considerations for Walker-Wang models. \item \S 6 computes the boundary entropy diagnostics for Levin-Wen models with boundary, followed by some classes of Walker-Wang models with boundary. \item \S 7 is a summary. \item Appendix A provides proofs of some results concerning generalized \(\mathcal{S}\)-matrices. \item Appendix B provides proofs of some results concerning loop-gas models as well as their entropies. \end{itemize}