Exactly soluble spin-1/2 models on three-dimensional lattices and non-abelian statistics of closed string excitations

Abstract

Exactly soluble spin-$\frac{1}2$ models on three-dimensional lattices are proposed by generalizing Kitaev model on honeycomb lattice to three dimensions with proper periodic boundary conditions. The simplest example is spins on a diamond lattice which is exactly soluble. The ground state sector of the model may be mapped into a p-wave paired state on cubic lattice. We observe for the first time a topological phase transition from a gapless phase to a gapped phase in an exactly soluble spin model. Furthermore, the gapless phase can not be gapped by a perturbation breaking the time reversal symmetry. Unknotted and unlinked Wilson loops arise as eigen excitations, which may evolute into linked and knotted loop excitations. We show that these closed string excitations obey abelian statistics in the gapped phase and non-abelian statistics in the gapless phase.