2024/09/16 by Pranay Gorantla, Gorantla, Pranay, Tzu-Chen Huang +1 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Lattice (hep-lat) #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) #Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2409.10612
openalex publication_date 2024/09/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We propose and analyze a deformation of the 3+1d lattice \mathbb Z2 gauge theory that preserves the non-invertible Wegner duality symmetry at the self-dual point. We identify a frustration-free point along this deformation where there are nine exactly degenerate ground states (on a periodic cubic lattice) even at finite volume. One of these ground states is a trivial product state and the rest are the topologically-ordered ground states of the 3+1d toric code. We also prove that the frustration-free point is gapped in the thermodynamic limit. Our model, therefore, realizes a gapped phase with spontaneously broken Wegner duality symmetry. Furthermore, by imposing the Gauss law constraints energetically, all the above features can be realized on a tensor product Hilbert space. Finally, we discuss a generalization of this deformation to the 3+1d lattice \mathbb ZN gauge theory and conjecture the possible phase diagram.