Interaction Enabled Fractonic Higher-Order Topological Phases

Abstract

In this work, we present a collection of three-dimensional higher-order symmetry protected topological phases (HOSPTs) with gapless hinge modes that exist only in strongly interacting systems subject to subsystem symmetry constraints. We use a coupled wire construction to generate three families of microscopic lattice models: insulators with helical hinge modes, superconductors with chiral Majorana hinge modes, and fractionalized insulators with helical hinge modes that carry fractional charge. In particular, these HOSPTs do not require spatial symmetry protection, but are instead protected by subsystem symmetries, and support "fractonic" quasiparticle excitations that move within only a low-dimensional sub-manifold of the system. We analyze the anomaly structure for the boundary theory and the entanglement Hamiltonian, and show that the side surfaces of these HOSPTs, despite being partially gapped, exhibit symmetry anomalies, and can only be realized as the boundary of three-dimensional HOSPT phases.

16 pages, 9 figures

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• $(d-2)$-dimensional edge states of rotation symmetry protected topological states
• Reflection symmetric second-order topological insulators and superconductors
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Cited by in corpus (14)

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• Fractonic Higher-Order Topological Phases in Open Quantum Systems
• Intrinsically Interacting Higher-Order Topological Superconductors
• Detecting Subsystem Symmetry Protected Topological Order Through Strange Correlators
• Classification and construction of interacting fractonic higher-order topological phases
• Multipole groups and fracton phenomena on arbitrary crystalline lattices
• Holographic View of Mixed-State Symmetry-Protected Topological Phases in Open Quantum Systems
• Unveiling Higher-Order Topology via Polarized Topological Charges
• Fractional second-order topological insulator from a three-dimensional coupled-wires construction
• Bridging three-dimensional coupled-wire models and cellular topological states: Solvable models for topological and fracton orders
• Boundary anomaly detection in two-dimensional subsystem symmetry-protected topological phases
• Subsystem Symmetry-Protected Topological Phases from Subsystem SymTFT of 2-Foliated Exotic Tensor Gauge Theory
• Fractional chiral second-order topological insulator from a three-dimensional array of coupled wires
• Coupled-wire construction of non-Abelian higher-order topological phases