Asymptotic correlations in gapped and critical topological phases of 1D quantum systems (Q2315151)

The paper considers topological phases protected by symmetry, which can occur in gapped and in critical systems. Earlier, the authors extended the well-known classification of the gapped topological phases of quadratic fermionic Hamiltonians with spinless time-reversal symmetry to gapless topological phases. These are labelled by a topological invariant \(\omega\) and the central charge \(c\) of the conformal field theory (CFT) that describes the continuum limit if the model is critical. If the system is gapped, then \(c=0\) and \(\omega\) reduces to the well-known winding number of the BDI class of Altland and Zirnbauer's tenfold way. By this, each Hamiltonian in this class can be efficiently encoded into a holomorphic function \(f(z)\) on the punctured complex plane \(C\backslash\{0\}\). Moreover, \(c\) and \(\omega\) can be obtained by counting zeros of \(f(z)\). Then two critical models in this class can be smoothly connected if and only if they have the same topological invariants and central charges. The remaining question is the extent to which the topological nature of these gapped and gapless phases is reflected in their correlation functions and how the correlations are encoded in \(f(z)\). Moreover, distinct critical phases could be distinguished by the topological invariant \(\omega\), yet it was not clear to what extent this lattice quantity is related to the conformal field theory in the continuum. The paper, on the one hand, focuses on answering the aforementioned questions conceptually, linking universal properties of correlations to the function \(f(z)\) and shedding light on the interplay of criticality and topology. On the other hand, since the models allow for a rigorous analysis, the authors give derivations of exact asymptotic expressions for important correlators. As method, Toeplitz determinant theory is used. Since topological phases cannot be distinguished locally, the correlations of so-called string-like objects \(O^\alpha\) (labelled by \(\alpha\in Z\)) are studied, meaning that \(O^\alpha(1)O^\alpha(N)\) involves an extensive \((\sim N)\) number of operators. Using Wick's theorem, these correlations reduce to \(N\times N\) determinants. The authors calculate their asymptotic behavior using the theory of Toeplitz determinants, phrasing the answers in terms of the zeros of \(f(z)\). In the gapped case \((c=0)\), it is well known that symmetry protected topological (SPT) phases can be distinguished by string order parameters, and it is indeed proved that \(O^\alpha\) has long-range order if and only if \(\alpha=\omega\). The ratios of the correlation lengths of these operators are universal, i.e., they depend on \(\omega\) only. Moreover, the largest correlation length has a universal relationship to the zero of \(f(z)\), which is the nearest to the unit circle. In the critical case \((c\neq 0)\), all correlations are algebraically decaying and the corresponding scaling dimensions of \(O^\alpha\) are obtained. It turns out that measuring these gives access to both \(c\) and \(\omega\). Moreover, a continuum-lattice correspondence for these operators is proposed. Additionally, these correlators are discussed in the spin chain picture, obtained after a Jordan-Wigner transformation. For odd \(\alpha\), \(O^\alpha\) becomes a local spin operator, and long-range order in \(O^\alpha(1)O^\alpha(N)\) defines spontaneous symmetry breaking. At the same time, for even \(\alpha\), these correlators are string order parameters for spin chain SPTs. Whilst there is no natural notion of `non-interacting spin chains', this analysis may be helpful for determining the (interacting) classification of topologically non-trivial critical spin chains. The paper successively presents outline the model and state main results. Then the dual spin chain and connections to previous works are discussed. Into the framework of the broader physical context, general approaches are discussed to string order parameters and the consequences of universality in the gapped phases. The authors discuss universality and its implications for spin chains, as well as the relation to symmetry fractionalisation. Then they relate correlation length in the bulk to localisation length at the edge and derive critical exponents. The obtained lattice results are connected to continuum (CFT) models and entanglement scaling approaching a transition is discussed. After that, the mathematical preliminaries are given and the proofs of the results for the gapped and critical cases are stated. Finally, it is explained how the results may be extended in different directions.