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Domain walls in ferromagnetic nanowires are potential building-blocks of future technologies such as racetrack memories, in which data encoded in the domain walls are transported using spin-polarised currents. However, the development of energy-efficient devices has been hampered by the high current densities needed to initiate domain wall motion. We show here that a remarkable reduction in the critical current density can be achieved for in-plane magnetised coupled domain walls in CoFe/Ru/CoFe synthetic ferrimagnet tracks. The antiferromagnetic exchange coupling between the layers leads to simple N\'{e}el wall structures, imaged using photoemission electron and Lorentz transmission electron microscopy, with a width of only $\sim 100$~nm. The measured critical current density to set these walls in motion, detected using magnetotransport measurements, is $1.0 \times 10^{11}$~Am$^{-2}$, almost an order of magnitude lower than in a ferromagnetically coupled control sample. Theoretical modelling indicates that this is due to nonadiabatic driving of anisotropically coupled walls, a mechanism that can be used to design efficient domain-wall devices., Comment: Supplmentary Information as ancillary file

Transitions between different topologically ordered phases have been studied by artificially creating boundaries between these gapped phases and thus studying their effects relating to condensation and tunneling of particles from one phase to the other. In this work we introduce exactly solvable models which are similar to the quantum double models (QDM) of Kitaev where such domain walls are dynamically generated making them a part of the spectrum. These systems have a local symmetry and may or may not have a global symmetry leading to the possibility of a ground state degeneracy arising from both, global symmetry breaking and a topological degeneracy. The domain wall states now separate the different topologically ordered phases belonging to the different sectors controlled by the global symmetry, when present. They have interesting properties including fusion with the deconfined anyons of the topologically ordered phase, to either create new domain walls, or their annihilation. They can also act like a scatterer permuting anyons of the topologically ordered phases on either side of the domain wall. Thus these domain wall states can be thought of as a synthetic scatterer which can be created in any part of the lattice. We show these effects for the simplest case of the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ toric code phase decorated with a global $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry and then make remarks about the case when we have the QDM based on two arbitrary groups $G_1$ and $G_2$ in which case we may no longer have a global symmetry., Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures

The global $e$-$m$ exchange symmetry of the toric code is realized locally through an exactly solvable Hamiltonian on a two dimensional lattice which has no lattice dislocations and their associated defect line. The Hamiltonian is still changed locally in selected sites where we wish to realize this anyon symmetry. We refer to these selected sites as defect sites in analogy with the usual lattice defects. The operators on the defect sites condense dyons of the toric code and are shown to support states which obey the fusion rules of Ising anyons just as the lattice dislocations thus achieving the transition to the Ising phase from the toric code phase. They can also be introduced in an entire region leading to an idea of non-localized defects. The method leads to a natural generalization for other Abelian groups where they help realize all the anyon exchange symmetries locally., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. All the Abelian cases are covered

A state sum construction on closed manifolds \'{a} la Kuperberg can be used to construct the partition functions of $3D$ lattice gauge theories based on involutory Hopf algebras, $\mathcal{A}$, of which the group algebras, $\mathbb{C}G$, are a particular case. Transfer matrices can be obtained by carrying out this construction on a manifold with boundary. Various Hamiltonians of physical interest can be obtained from these transfer matrices by playing around with the parameters the transfer matrix is a function of. The $2D$ quantum double Hamiltonians of Kitaev can be obtained from such transfer matrices for specific values of these parameters. A initial study of such models has been carried out in \cite{p1}. In this paper we study other regions of this parameter space to obtain some new and known models. The new model comprise of Hamiltonians which "partially" confine the excitations of the quantum double Hamiltonians which are usually deconfined. The state sum construction allows for parameters depending on the position in obtaining the transfer matrices and thus it is natural to expect disordered Hamiltonians from them. Thus one set of known models consist of the disordered quantum double Hamiltonians. Finally we obtain quantum double Hamiltonians perturbed by magnetic fields which have been considered earlier in the literature to study the stability of topological order to perturbations., Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures. This paper is an extension of the one http://arxiv.org/abs/1310.8483. Slightly modified to make it more self-contained

State sum constructions, such as Kuperberg's algorithm, give partition functions of physical systems, like lattice gauge theories, in various dimensions by associating local tensors or weights, to different parts of a closed triangulated manifold. Here we extend this construction by including matter fields to build partition functions in both two and three space-time dimensions. The matter fields introduces new weights to the vertices and they correspond to Potts spin configurations described by an $\mathcal{A}$-module with an inner product. Performing this construction on a triangulated manifold with a boundary we obtain the transfer matrices which are decomposed into a product of local operators acting on vertices, links and plaquettes. The vertex and plaquette operators are similar to the ones appearing in the quantum double models (QDM) of Kitaev. The link operator couples the gauge and the matter fields, and it reduces to the usual interaction terms in known models such as $\mathbb{Z}_2$ gauge theory with matter fields. The transfer matrices lead to Hamiltonians that are frustration-free and are exactly solvable. According to the choice of the initial input, that of the gauge group and a matter module, we obtain interesting models which have a new kind of ground state degeneracy that depends on the number of equivalence classes in the matter module under gauge action. Some of the models have confined flux excitations in the bulk which become deconfined at the surface. These edge modes are protected by an energy gap provided by the link operator. These properties also appear in "confined Walker-Wang" models which are 3D models having interesting surface states. Apart from the gauge excitations there are also excitations in the matter sector which are immobile and can be thought of as defects like in the Ising model. We only consider bosonic matter fields in this paper., Comment: 52 pages, 58 figures. This paper is an extension of arXiv:1310.8483 [cond-mat.str-el] with the inclusion of matter fields. This version includes substantial changes with a connection made to confined Walker-Wang models along the lines of arXiv:1208.5128 and subsequent works. Accepted for publication in JPhysA

Quantum double models, such as the toric code, can be constructed from transfer matrices of lattice gauge theories with discrete gauge groups and parametrized by the center of the gauge group algebra and its dual. For general choices of these parameters the transfer matrix contains operators acting on links which can also be thought of as perturbations to the quantum double model driving it out of its topological phase and destroying the exact solvability of the quantum double model. We modify these transfer matrices with perturbations and extract exactly solvable models which remain in a quantum phase, thus nullifying the effect of the perturbation. The algebra of the modified vertex and plaquette operators now obey a deformed version of the quantum double algebra. The Abelian cases are shown to be in the quantum double phase whereas the non-Abelian phases are shown to be in a modified phase of the corresponding quantum double phase. These are illustrated with the groups $\mathbb{Z}_n$ and $S_3$. The quantum phases are determined by studying the excitations of these systems namely their fusion rules and the statistics. We then go further to construct a transfer matrix which contains the other $\mathbb{Z}_2$ phase namely the double semion phase. More generally for other discrete groups these transfer matrices contain the twisted quantum double models. These transfer matrices can be thought of as being obtained by introducing extra parameters into the transfer matrix of lattice gauge theories. These parameters are central elements belonging to the tensor products of the algebra and its dual and are associated to vertices and volumes of the three dimensional lattice. As in the case of the lattice gauge theories we construct the operators creating the excitations in this case and study their braiding and fusion properties., Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures, A new section has been added which shows how the double semion model can be obtained from the transfer matrix formalism. This section also shows how the twisted quantum double model of arXiv:1211.3695 [cond-mat.str-el] can be obtained from the transfer matrix formalism. Algebra of operators added, main results unchanged

In this paper we look at 3D lattice models that are generalizations of the state sum model used to define the Kuperberg invariant of 3-manifolds. The partition function is a scalar constructed as a tensor network where the building blocks are tensors given by the structure constants of an involutary Hopf algebra $\mathcal{A}$. These models are very general and are hard to solve in its entire parameter space. One can obtain familiar models, such as ordinary gauge theories, by letting $\mathcal{A}$ be the group algebra $\mathbb{C}(G)$ of a discrete group $G$ and staying on a certain region of the parameter space. We consider the transfer matrix of the model and show that Quantum double Hamiltonians are derived from a particular choice of the parameters. Such a construction naturally leads to the star and plaquette operators of the quantum double Hamiltonians, of which the toric code is a special case when $\mathcal{A}=\mathbb{C}(\mathbb{Z}_2)$. This formulation is convenient to study ground states of these generalized quantum double models where they can naturally be interpreted as tensor network states. For a surface $\Sigma$, the ground state degeneracy is determined by the Kuperberg 3-manifold invariant of $\Sigma\times S^1$. It is also possible to obtain extra models by simple enlarging the allowed parameter space but keeping the solubility of the model. While some of these extra models have appeared before in the literature, our 3D perspective allows for an uniform description of them., Comment: 43 pages, 74 figures. A new section has been included which describes new topological and quasi-topological phases which can be obtained from the transfer matrix of lattice gauge theories. Apart from this the Introduction has been significantly improved