English

Local topological order and boundary algebras

Mathematical Physics 2025-02-14 v2 Strongly Correlated Electrons math.MP Operator Algebras Quantum Algebra Quantum Physics

Abstract

We introduce a set of axioms for locally topologically ordered quantum spin systems in terms of nets of local ground state projections, and we show they are satisfied by Kitaev's Toric Code and Levin-Wen type models. For a locally topologically ordered spin system on Zk\mathbb{Z}^{k}, we define a local net of boundary algebras on Zk1\mathbb{Z}^{k-1}, which provides a mathematically precise algebraic description of the holographic dual of the bulk topological order. We construct a canonical quantum channel so that states on the boundary quasi-local algebra parameterize bulk-boundary states without reference to a boundary Hamiltonian. As a corollary, we obtain a new proof of a recent result of Ogata [Ann. H. Poincar\'e 25, 2024] that the bulk cone von Neumann algebra in the Toric Code is of type II\rm{II}, and we show that Levin-Wen models can have cone algebras of type III\rm{III}. Finally, we argue that the braided tensor category of DHR bimodules for the net of boundary algebras characterizes the bulk topological order in (2+1)D, and can also be used to characterize the topological order of boundary states.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2307.12552,
  title  = {Local topological order and boundary algebras},
  author = {Corey Jones and Pieter Naaijkens and David Penneys and Daniel Wallick},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2307.12552},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

44 pages, many figures. This version includes an appendix by Masaki Izumi further analyzing the type of the cone algebras