Topological orders and factorization homology (Q2413292)

A topological order is a kind of order in the zero-temperature of the phase of matter. Macroscopically, it is defined and described by robust ground state degeneracy and quantize non-abelian geometric phases of degenerate ground state. Microscopically, it corresponds to patterns of long range quantum entanglement. In this paper, a method to compute the global observables of an anomaly-free 2d topological order on a closed 2d manifold adopting factorization homology with coefficient in unitary modular tensor categories (UMTC's) is presented (\S5.3). Anomaly-free 2d toplogical orders are realizable by 2d lattice models [\textit{L. Kong} and \textit{X. G. Wen}, ``Braided fusion categories, gravitational anomalies, and the mathematical framework for toplogical orders in any dimensions'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1405.5858}]. They are classified by UMTC's. The objects of the UMTC corresponds to topological excitations (called anyons). These topological excitations can be moved fusion and braided. Which are given by the data and axioms of a UMTC [\textit{A. Kitaev}, Ann. Phys. 321, No. 1, 2--111 (2006; Zbl 1125.82009)]. However, the fusion-braiding structures of topological excitations are only local observables defined in an open 2-disk. The answer to the question what the global observable are? This is provided by the theory of factorization. homology, which is defined by \[ \int_M A=\mathrm{Colim}\bigl((\mathcal{D}isk^{\mathrm{or}}_n)_{/M}\to\mathcal{D}isk^{\mathrm{or}}_n\rightarrow{A}\mathcal{V}\bigr). \] (Def. 3.6). Here \(M\) is an oriented \(n\)-manifold, \(\mathcal{D}isk^{\mathrm{or}}_n\) is the symmetric monoidal \(\infty\)-category whose objects are disjoint union of finitely many \(n\)-dimensiona Euclidean space (Def. 3.2), \((\mathcal{D}isk^{\mathrm{or}}_n)_{/M}\) is the over category of \(n\)-disks embedded in \(M\), \(\mathcal{V}\) is asymmetric monoidal category and \(A:\mathcal{D}isk^{\mathrm{or}}_n\to \mathcal{V}\) is an \(n\)-disk algera in \(\mathcal{V}\) (Def. 3.3). \(\int_M A\) is an object of \(\mathcal{V}\) and said to be the factorization homology of \(M\) with respect to \(A\) [\textit{D. Ayala} and \textit{J. Francis}, J. Topol. 8, No. 4, 1045--1084 (2015; Zbl 1350.55009)]. Factoriztion homology can be defined for stratified \(M\) (\S3.2, [\textit{D. Ayala} et al., Sel. Math., New Ser. 23, No. 1, 293--362 (2017; Zbl 1365.57037)]). Then the main results of this paper are {\parindent=0.7cm\begin{itemize}\item[1.] Given any closed stratified surface \(\Sigma\) and an anomaly-free coefficient system \(A\) on \(\Sigma\), we have \[ \int_\Sigma A\cong (\mathbf{H}, u_\Sigma). \] Here \(\mathbf{H}\) is the category of finite dimensional Hilbert spaces, describing the trivial 2d topological order. When \(\Sigma\) has no 1-strutum and \(A\) is determined by a single UMTC \(\mathcal{C}\), \(u_\Sigma\) is the Hilbert space assigned to \(\Sigma\) in Reschetikhin-Turaev 2+1D TQFT deternined by \(\mathcal{C}\) (Th. 4.17 cf. [\textit{N. Reshetikhin} and \textit{V. G. Turaev}, Invent. Math. 103, No. 3, 547--597 (1991; Zbl 0725.57007)]). \item[2.] Factorization homology on a closed stratified surface \(\Sigma\) with an anomaly-free coefficient \(A\) gives exactly the ground state degeneracy (GSD) of the same surface decorated by anomaly-free topological defects of codimensions 0,1,2 that are associated to \(A\), i.e. \(u_\Sigma\) =GSD (\S5.3). \end{itemize}} As applications of these results, such as closed formula for GSD for topological order on a surface with boundaries, generalizing the results in [\textit{L. Y. Hung} and \textit{Y. Wan}, ``Ground state degeneracy of topological phases on open surfaces'', Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, No. 7, Article ID 076401, 5 p. (2015; \url{doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.076401}), Cor. 5.18], and exact formula of GSD of a stratified sphere \((S^2;S^1)\) with two 2d phases given by UMTC's and bounded by an anomaly-free gapped domain wall (Cor. 5.22). See [\textit{T. Lan}, \textit{J. C. Wang} and \textit{X. G. Wen}, ``Gapped domain walls, gapped boundaries and topological degeneracy'', ibid. 114, No. 7, Article ID 076402, 5 p. (2015; \url{doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.076402})], are given in \S5, the last section. A UMTC \(\mathcal{C}\) is a unitary braided fusion category equipped with the canonical spherical structure \(\mathcal{C}^\prime \cong\mathbf{H}\), where \(\mathcal{C}^\prime\) is the Müger center of \(\mathcal{C}\) [\textit{M. Müger}, J. Pure Appl. Algebra 180, No. 1--2, 159--219 (2003; Zbl 1033.18003)].This definition of UMTC and some of its properties are explained in \S2. \S3 deals with factorization homology including the case \(M\) is a 2d stratified space, and prove the \(\otimes\)-excition property; \[ \int_M A=\bigl(\int_{M_{[-1,1)}}A\bigr)\otimes_{\int_{M_{(0)}} A}\bigl(\int_{M_{(-1,0]}} A\bigr), \] provided \(\mathcal{V}\) is presentable and th tensor product \(\mathcal{V}\times \mathcal{V}\) preserves small colimit for both variables. Here \(M_{[-1,1)}\)m etc. are preimages of \([-1,1)\), etc. of the collar gluing \(f: M\to [-1,1]\) (Th. 3.9. [1], Lemma 3.18). In \S5.2, \(\otimes\)-excision property is shown to coincide with the basic dimensional reduction processes of topological orders, Th. 4.17 is proved in \S4, after introducing the notion anomaly-free-coefficients system (Def. 4.1). The relation between the theory of factorization homology and 2d topological orders is discussed in \S5. Since an anomaly-free 2d topological order induces topological orders of lower dimensions, the main result 2 is proved by using coincidence of dimensional reduction process of toplogical orders and \(\otimes\)-excision property of factorization homology. The authors remark this work is restricted to the 2d systems with only anomaly-free defects of codimension 0,1,2. But using unique bulk hypothesis proposed in [\textit{L. Kong, X. G. Wen} and \textit{H. Zheng}, ``Boundary-bulk relation for topological orders as the functor mapping higher categories to their centers'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1502.01690}], it is possible to prove the correspondence between factorization homology and the dimensional reduction process for anomalous higher codimensional defects in higher dimensional theories.