2015/04/16 by Zhen Bi, Kevin Slagle, Bi, Zhen +3
Chemistry · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Physical and Chemical Molecular Interactions #Atomic and Molecular Physics #Boundary (topology) #Dual (grammatical number) #Geometry #Mathematics #Physics #Quantum #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum electrodynamics #Quantum mechanics #Symmetry (geometry) #Symmetry protected topological order #Theoretical physics #Topological order #Topology (electrical circuits) #cond-mat.str-el
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1504.04373
8 pages
arxiv created 2015/04/16 · openalex publication_date 2015/04/16 · arxiv updated 2015/04/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We study 3d (or (3+1)d) Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) realized on the boundary of 4d (or (4+1)d) bosonic symmetry protected topological (BSPT) states, using a systematic nonlinear sigma model (NLSM) field theory description of BSPT states. We demonstrate that many of these QED states have an exact electric-magnetic duality due to the symmetry of the BSPT states in the 4d bulk. The gauge charge and Dirac monopole both carry projective representations of the bulk symmetry, and the emergent gapless photons of the QED phase also transform nontrivially under the bulk symmetry. Some of these QED boundary states can be further driven into a 3d ℤ2 topological order, and the statistics and symmetry transformation of its point particle and vison loop excitations guarantee that this topological order cannot be driven into a trivial confined or Higgs phase. With a finite fourth dimension, the entire system becomes a 3d lattice, the self-dual QED and the ℤ2 topological order can coexist on two opposite boundaries respectively, which together constitute an exotic 3d self-dual "topological photon phase".