Physics of symmetry protected topological phases involving higher symmetries and its applications
Chao‐Ming Jian, Xiao-Chuan Wu, Yichen Xu, Cenke Xu
Abstract
We discuss physical constructions and the boundary properties of various symmetry-protected topological phases that involve 1-form symmetries from one spatial dimension to four spatial dimensions ($4d$). For example, the prototype three-dimensional ($3d$) boundary state of $4d$ SPT states involving 1-form symmetries can be either a gapless photon phase (quantum electrodynamics) or gapped topological order enriched by 1-form symmetries; that is, the loop excitations of these topological orders carry nontrivial 1-form symmetry charges. This study also serves the purpose of diagnosing anomalies of $3d$ states of matter. Connection between SPT states with 1-form symmetries and condensed-matter systems such as quantum dimer models at one lower dimension will also be discussed. Whether a quantum dimer model can have a trivial gapped phase depends on the nature of its corresponding bulk state in one higher dimension.