Quantum Phase Transitions between Symmetry-Enriched Fracton Phases

Phases with topological order exhibit further complexity in the presence of global symmetries: States with the same topological order are distinguished by how their anyonic excitations transform under these symmetries, leading to a classification in terms of symmetry-enriched topological phases. In this work, we develop a generic scheme to study an analogous situation for three-dimensional fracton phases by means of isometric tensor network states (isoTNS) with finite bond dimension, which allow us to tune between wavefunctions of different symmetry fractionalization. We focus on the X-Cube model, a paradigmatic fracton model hosting two types of excitations: lineons, which are mobile in a single direction only, and fractons that are completely immobile as individual particles. By deforming the local tensors that describe the ground state of the fixed point model, we find a family of exact wavefunctions for which the symmetry fractionalization under an anti-unitary symmetry on both types of excitations is directly visible. These wavefunctions have non-vanishing correlation lengths and are non-stabilizer states. At the critical points between the phases, power-law correlations are supported in certain spatial directions. Furthermore, based on the isoTNS description of the wavefunction, we determine a linear-depth quantum circuit to sequentially realize these states on a quantum processor, including a holographic scheme for which a pair of two-dimensional qubit arrays suffices to encode the three-dimensional state using measurements. Our approach provides a construction to enrich phases with exotic topological or fracton order based on the language of tensor networks and offers a tractable route to implement and characterize fracton order with quantum processors.
Comment: 22 pages, 10 figures