CMSA Condensed Matter/Math Seminar: Insights into type-II fractons via topological order
When: June 25, 2020
9:30 am - 11:00 am
Where: Virtually
Speaker: Daniel Bulmash - University of Maryland
“Type-II” fracton phases are exotic, gapped phases of matter in which all point-like excitations are deconfined but completely immobile. We present two approaches to constructing and analyzing models for type-II fractons using tools from conventional topological order. First, we use networks of defects in topological quantum field theories to describe Haah’s B code, which is a type-II fracton model. We use this fact as evidence for a conjecture that all fracton models can be described by a suitable defect network. Second, we show how gauging global symmetries of Abelian type-II fracton models produces new, exactly solvable models with non-Abelian type-II fractons, and we analyze the unusual excitations.