CMSA Quantum Matter in Mathematics and Physics: Subsystem-Symmetry protected phases of matter

CMSA EVENTS

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April 29, 2021 10:30 am - 12:00 pm
via Zoom Video Conferencing
Speaker:

Fiona Burnell - University of Minnesota

We know that different systems with the same unbroken global symmetry can nevertheless be in distinct phases of matter.  These different "symmetry-protected topological" phases are characterized by protected (gapless) surface states.  After reviewing this physics in interacting systems with global symmetries, I will describe how a different class of symmetries known as subsystem symmetries, which are neither local nor global, can also lead to protected gapless boundaries.  I will discuss how some of these subsystem-symmetry protected phases are related (though not equivalent) to interacting higher-order topological insulators, with protected gapless modes along corners or hinges in higher dimensional systems.

Zoom: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/977347126