Description:

Title: Quantum anomalies in symmetry-enriched topological orders

Speaker: Dr. Chenjie Wang, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics

Abstract: In recent years, a lot of attention has been attracted to the interplay between symmetry and topology in quantum many-body systems. A particularly interesting phenomenon is that some symmetry-enriched topologically ordered systems are anomalous, in that they cannot be realized in strictly d dimensions without breaking the symmetry; instead, in order to respect the symmetry, they can only be realized on the boundary of certain (d+1)-dimensional systems. In this talk, I will discuss how to theoretically detect quantum anomalies in 2D topologically ordered systems, for symmetries such as onsite unitary symmetries and the time-reversal symmetry. I will give a set of explicit anomaly-detecting formulas, which are expressed in terms of the topological and symmetry properties of anyon excitations.

Host: James Sauls

Condensed Matter, Physics, Astronomy