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We define a $\mathbb{Z}_2$-valued index for stably short-range entangled states of two-dimensional fermionic lattice systems with charge conservation and time reversal symmetry. The index takes its non-trivial value precisely if the `fluxon', the state obtained by inserting a $\pi$-flux through the system, transforms under time reversal as part of a Kramers pair. This index extends the Fu-Kane-Mele index of free fermions to interacting systems.

We give a complete classification of the anyon sectors of Kitaev's quantum double model on the infinite triangular lattice and for finite gauge group $G$, including the non-abelian case. As conjectured, the anyon sectors of the model correspond precisely to the irreducible representations of the quantum double algebra of $G$. Our proof consists of two main parts. In the first part, we construct for each irreducible representation of the quantum double algebra a pure state and show that the GNS representations of these pure states are pairwise disjoint anyon sectors. In the second part we show that any anyon sector is unitarily equivalent to one of the anyon sectors constructed in the first part. Purity of the states constructed in the first part is shown by characterising these states as the unique states that satisfy appropriate local constraints. These constraints are of two types, namely flux constraints and gauge constraints. The flux constraints single out certain string-net states, while the gauge constraints fix the way in which these string-nets condense. At the core of the proof is the fact that certain groups of local gauge transformations act freely and transitively on collections of local string-nets. The proof that the GNS representations of these states are anyon sectors relies on showing that they are unitarily equivalent to amplimorphism representations which are much easier to compare to the ground state representation. For the second part, we show that any anyon sector contains a pure state that satisfies all but a finite number of the constraints characterising the pure states of the first part. Using known techniques we can then construct a pure state in the anyon sector that satisfies all but one of these constraints. Finally, we show that any such state must be a vector state in one of the anyon sectors constructed in the first part., Comment: Errors of version 1 fixed, presentation throughout the manuscript improved. 83 pages, 16 figures

We describe in a simple setting how to extract a unitary braided fusion category from a collection of superselection sectors of a two-dimensional quantum spin system, corresponding to abelian anyons. The structure of the unitary braided fusion category is given by F and R-symbols, which describe fusion and braiding of the anyons. We then construct the double semion state in infinite volume and extract the unitary braided fusion category describing its semion, anti-semion, and bound state excitations. We verify that this category corresponds to the representation category of the twisted quantum double of Z_2., Comment: 29 pages, 18 figures

We show that non-trivial two-dimensional topological insulators protected by an odd time-reversal symmetry have absolutely continuous edge spectrum. The proof employs a time-reversal symmetric version of the Wold decomposition that singles out ballistic edge modes of the topological insulator., Comment: 10 pages

We study topological indices of Fermionic time-reversal invariant topological insulators in two dimensions, in the regime of strong Anderson localization. We devise a method to interpolate between certain Fredholm operators arising in the context of these systems. We use this technique to prove the bulk-edge correspondence for mobility-gapped 2D topological insulators possessing a (Fermionic) time-reversal symmetry (class AII) and provide an alternative route to a theorem by Elgart-Graf-Schenker (2005) about the bulk-edge correspondence for strongly-disordered integer quantum Hall systems. We furthermore provide a proof of the stability of the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ index in the mobility gap regime. These two-dimensional results serve as a model for the study of higher dimensional $\mathbb{Z}_2$ indices., Comment: 21 pages, 2 figure

We classify automorphisms on quantum chains, allowing both spin and fermionic degrees of freedom, that are moreover equivariant with respect to a local symmetry action of a finite symmetry group $G$. The classification is up to equivalence through strongly continuous deformation and stacking with decoupled auxiliary automorphisms. We find that the equivalence classes are uniquely labeled by an index taking values in $\mathbb{Q} \cup \sqrt{2} \mathbb{Q} \times \mathrm{Hom}(G, \mathbb{Z}_2) \times H^2(G, U(1))$. We discuss te relation of this index to the index of one-dimensional symmetry protected topological phases on spin chains, which takes values in $H^2(G, U(1))$., Comment: 58 pages

The presence of chiral modes on the edges of quantum Hall samples is essential to our understanding of the quantum Hall effect. In particular, these edge modes should support ballistic transport and therefore, in a single particle picture, be supported in the absolutely continuous spectrum of the single-particle Hamiltonian. We show in this note that if a free fermion system on the two-dimensional lattice is gapped in the bulk, and has a nonvanishing Hall conductance, then the same system put on a half-space geometry supports edge modes whose spectrum fills the entire bulk gap and is absolutely continuous.

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We consider charge transport for interacting many-body systems with a gapped ground state subspace which is finitely degenerate and topologically ordered. To any locality-preserving, charge-conserving unitary that preserves the ground state space, we associate an index that is an integer multiple of $1/p$, where $p$ is the ground state degeneracy. We prove that the index is additive under composition of unitaries. This formalism gives rise to several applications: fractional quantum Hall conductance, a fractional Lieb-Schultz-Mattis theorem that generalizes the standard LSM to systems where the translation-invariance is broken, and the interacting generalization of the Avron-Dana-Zak relation between Hall conductance and the filling factor., Comment: v3: Lemma 4.1 corrected. v2: New clustering result, Proposition 3.1

We propose a many-body index that extends Fredholm index theory to many-body systems. The index is defined for any charge-conserving system with a topologically ordered $p$-dimensional ground state sector. The index is fractional with the denominator given by $p$. In particular, this yields a new short proof of the quantization of the Hall conductance and of Lieb-Schulz-Mattis theorem. In the case that the index is non-integer, the argument provides an explicit construction of Wilson loop operators exhibiting a non-trivial braiding and that can be used to create fractionally charged Abelian anyons., Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, published in Phys. Rev. B

We relate explicitly the adiabatic curvature -- in flux space -- of an interacting Hall insulator with nondegenerate ground state to various linear response coefficients, in particular the Kubo response and the adiabatic response. The flexibility of the setup, allowing for various driving terms and currents, reflects the topological nature of the adiabatic curvature. We also outline an abstract connection between Kubo response and adiabatic response, corresponding to the fact that electric fields can be generated both by electrostatic potentials and time-dependent magnetic fields. Our treatment fits in the framework of rigorous many-body theory, thanks to the gap assumption., Comment: Proceedings for the 2018 Arizona School of Analysis and Mathematical Physics

We propose an index for pairs of a unitary map and a clustering state on many-body quantum systems. We require the map to conserve an integer-valued charge and to leave the state, e.g. a gapped ground state, invariant. This index is integer-valued and stable under perturbations. In general, the index measures the charge transport across a fiducial line. We show that it reduces to (i) an index of projections in the case of non-interacting fermions, (ii) the charge density for translational invariant systems, and (iii) the quantum Hall conductance in the two-dimensional setting without any additional symmetry. Example (ii) recovers the Lieb-Schultz-Mattis theorem, and (iii) provides a new and short proof of quantization of Hall conductance in interacting many-body systems., Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures; v1->v2: Discussion of stability and thermodynamic limit added, minor changes throughout

We provide a short proof of the quantisation of the Hall conductance for gapped interacting quantum lattice systems on the two-dimensional torus. This is not new and should be seen as an adaptation of the proof of [1], simplified by making the stronger assumption that the Hamiltonian remains gapped when threading the torus with fluxes. We argue why this assumption is very plausible. The conductance is given by Berry's curvature and our key auxiliary result is that the curvature is asymptotically constant across the torus of fluxes., Comment: v1 --> v2: Remark added in Section 3 on the fractional QHE, minor changes for clarification throughout; v2-->v3: In Section 1.3, corrected error in the definition of the flux Hamiltonians; Figure 1 enriched for additional clarity

We consider the Bose-Hubbard model. Our focus is on many-body localization, which was described by many authors in such models, even in the absence of disorder. Since our work is rigorous, and since we believe that the localization in this type of models is not strictly valid in the infinite-time limit, we necessarily restrict our study to 'asymptotic localization': We prove that transport and thermalization are small beyond perturbation theory in the limit of large particle density. Our theorem takes the form of a many-body Nekhoroshev estimate. An interesting and new aspect of this model is the following: even though our analysis proceeds by perturbation in the hopping, the localization can not be inferred from a lack of hybridization between zero-hopping eigenstates., Comment: 27 pages, 1 figure. The proofs in section 5.3 are almost identical to the analogous proofs in arXiv:1305.5127