English

On the classification of topological orders

Category Theory 2022-06-15 v5 Strongly Correlated Electrons Quantum Algebra

Abstract

We axiomatize the extended operators in topological orders (possibly gravitationally anomalous, possibly with degenerate ground states) in terms of monoidal Karoubi-complete nn-categories which are mildly dualizable and have trivial centre. Dualizability encodes the word "topological," and we take it as the definition of "(separable) multifusion nn-category"; triviality of the centre implements the physical principle of "remote detectability." We show that such nn-categorical algebras are Morita-invertible (in the appropriate higher Morita category), thereby identifying topological orders with anomalous fully-extended TQFTs. We identify centreless fusion nn-categories (i.e. multifusion nn-categories with indecomposable unit) with centreless braided fusion (n1)(n{-}1)-categories. We then discuss the classification in low spacetime dimension, proving in particular that all (1+1)(1{+}1)- and (3+1)(3{+}1)-dimensional topological orders, with arbitrary symmetry enhancement, are suitably-generalized topological sigma models. These mathematical results confirm and extend a series of conjectures and proposals by X.G. Wen et al.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2003.06663,
  title  = {On the classification of topological orders},
  author = {Theo Johnson-Freyd},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2003.06663},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

32 pages. Accepted version

R2 v1 2026-06-23T14:14:50.854Z