Theory of Topological Edges and Domain Walls

F. A. Bais, J. K. Slingerland, and S. M. Haaker
Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 220403 – Published 5 June 2009

Abstract

We investigate domain walls between topologically ordered phases in two spatial dimensions. We present a method which allows for the determination of the superselection sectors of excitations of such walls and which leads to a unified description of the kinematics of a wall and the two phases to either side of it. This incorporates a description of scattering processes at domain walls which can be applied to questions of transport through walls. In addition to the general formalism, we give representative examples including domain walls between the Abelian and non-Abelian topological phases of Kitaev’s honeycomb lattice model in a magnetic field, as well as recently proposed domain walls between spin polarized and unpolarized non-Abelian fractional quantum Hall states at different filling fractions.

  • Figure
  • Received 7 January 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.220403

©2009 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

F. A. Bais1,2, J. K. Slingerland3,4, and S. M. Haaker1

  • 1Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Amsterdam, Valckenierstraat 65, 1018 XE Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • 2Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501, USA
  • 3School of Theoretical Physics, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 10 Burlington Road, Dublin, Ireland
  • 4Department of Mathematical Physics, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland

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Issue

Vol. 102, Iss. 22 — 5 June 2009

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