Published November 15, 2017 | Version Published + Submitted
Journal Article Open

Anyons are not energy eigenspaces of quantum double Hamiltonians

  • 1. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 2. ROR icon McGill University

Abstract

Kitaev's quantum double models, including the toric code, are canonical examples of quantum topological models on a two-dimensional spin lattice. Their Hamiltonian defines the ground space by imposing an energy penalty to any nontrivial flux or charge, but does not distinguish among those. We generalize this construction by introducing a family of Hamiltonians made of commuting four-body projectors that provide an intricate splitting of the Hilbert space by discriminating among nontrivial charges and fluxes. Our construction highlights that anyons are not in one-to-one correspondence with energy eigenspaces, a feature already present in Kitaev's construction. This discrepancy is due to the presence of local degrees of freedom in addition to topological ones on a lattice.

Additional Information

© 2017 American Physical Society. Received 16 June 2017; published 27 November 2017. We thank J. Preskill, A. Kitaev, D. Aasen, B. Levitan, S. Shukla, and D. Williamson for helpful discussions. We acknowledge funding provided by the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter, an NSF Physics Frontiers Center (NSF Grant No. PHY-1125565) with support of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (Grant No. GBMF-2644). O.L.C. is partially supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

Attached Files

Published - PhysRevB.96.195150.pdf

Submitted - 1701.04456.pdf

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Additional details

Additional titles

Alternative title
Tunable excitation spectrum in quantum double models

Identifiers

Eprint ID
77936
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20170605-083553920

Related works

Funding

Institute for Quantum Information and Matter (IQIM)
NSF
PHY-1125565
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
GBMF-2644
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)

Dates

Created
2017-06-05
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2021-11-15
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