Choreographed entanglement dances: Topological states of quantum matter

2019/02/22 by Xiao-Gang Wen · 181 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Mathematics #Physics #Quantum #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum entanglement #Quantum many-body systems #Quantum mechanics #Quantum state #State of matter #Theoretical physics #Topological Materials and Phenomena #Topology (electrical circuits) #cond-mat.str-el

paper · pdf · doi:10.1126/science.aal3099

published in Science 363(6429) (American Association for the Advancement of Science) · 8 pages 5 figures

openalex publication_date 2019/02/22 · arxiv created 2019/06/14 · arxiv updated 2019/06/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

It has long been thought that all different phases of matter arise from symmetry breaking. Without symmetry breaking, there would be no pattern, and matter would be featureless. However, it is now clear that for quantum matter at zero temperature, even symmetric disordered liquids can have features, giving rise to topological phases of quantum matter. Some of the topological phases are highly entangled (that is, have topological order), whereas others are weakly entangled (that is, have symmetry-protected trivial order). This Review provides a brief summary of these zero-temperature states of matter and their emergent properties, as well as their importance in unifying some of the most basic concepts in nature.

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• Nonlocal nonstabilizerness for slightly entangled quantum many-body states
• ℤ_N generalizations of three-dimensional stabilizer codes
• Consistent Scaling Exponents at the Deconfined Quantum-Critical Point*