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physics2023
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- What is meant when a phase is said to have "symmetry protected"?
What is meant when a phase is said to have "symmetry protected"?
I recently encountered the topic of topological phases of matter. There I encountered the following term:Nugatory said:You will get better and more helpful answers if you tell us where you encountered that term. Without that information we’re just going to be guessing what the unknown author meant.
Where did you encounter these things? We need a specific reference--book, article, paper, website, etc.--not just a description of what you found.physics2023 said:I recently encountered the topic of topological phases of matter. There I encountered the following term:
"symmetry protected topological phases"
https://www.its.caltech.edu/~xcchen/img/Summer_School/lecture-CalSWARM.pdfPeterDonis said:Where did you encounter these things? We need a specific reference--book, article, paper, website, etc.--not just a description of what you found.
You have a full document explaining what you are asking???physics2023 said:
Symmetry protected topological phases are gapped phases with certain global symmetry (time reversal, charge conjugation, discrete ##Z_N## symmetry, spatial symmetry etc.). The ground state does not spontaneously break the symmetry and is unique on closed manifolds. On an open manifold on the other hand, the system has nontrivial edge modes (degenerate or gapless) such that there cannot be a unique gapped ground state.
I guess he wants a simpler explanation than given in the paper.DrClaude said:You have a full document explaining what you are asking???