English

Topological order and Fractons from Gauging Exponential Symmetries

Strongly Correlated Electrons 2026-01-21 v5

Abstract

We broaden the scope of quantum field theory by introducing a general class of discrete gauge theories that realize either topological order or fracton behavior across dimensions. We start from translation-invariant systems endowed with unconventional charge-conservation laws, which we term \textit{exponential polynomial symmetries}. Gauging these symmetries yields ZN\mathbb{Z}_N gauge theories in 2D that exhibit topological order whose quasiparticles have constrained mobility and whose ground-state degeneracy shows ultraviolet (UV) dependence. These features are reminiscent of spatial symmetry-enriched topological order, wherein quasiparticle excitations transform nontrivially under lattice translations. We further propose a Chern-Simons variant that produces non-CSS stabilizer codes and outline a framework for exponentially symmetric subsystem SPT phases. Finally, we extend this gauging procedure to 3D, obtaining new variants of fracton topological order.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2306.17121,
  title  = {Topological order and Fractons from Gauging Exponential Symmetries},
  author = {Guilherme Delfino and Claudio Chamon and Yizhi You},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2306.17121},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

24 pages, 18 figures. v5: typos fixed;