Symmetry Protected Topological phases and Generalized Cohomology
arXiv:1712.07950 · doi:10.1007/JHEP05(2019)007
Abstract
We discuss the classification of SPT phases in condensed matter systems. We review Kitaev's argument that SPT phases are classified by a generalized cohomology theory, valued in the spectrum of gapped physical systems. We propose a concrete description of that spectrum and of the corresponding cohomology theory. We compare our proposal to pre-existing constructions in the literature.
27 pages, 10 figures. v2: citation update