Partially topological phase in a quantum loop gas model with tension and pressure

Abstract

Enhancing robustness of topological orders against perturbations is one of the main goals in topological quantum computing. Since the kinetic of excitations is in conflict with the robustness of topological orders, any mechanism that reduces the mobility of excitations will be in favor of robustness. A strategy in this direction is adding frustration to topological systems. In this paper we consider a frustrated toric code on a kagome lattice, and show that although increasing the strength of perturbation reduces the topological order of the system, it cannot destroy it completely. Our frustrated toric code is indeed a quantum loop gas model with string tension and pressure which their competition leads to a partially topological phase (PTP) in which the excitations are restricted to move in particular sublattices. In this phase the ground state is a product of many copies of fluctuating loop states corresponding to quasi one dimensional ladders. By defining a non-local matrix order parameter and studying the behavior of ground state global entanglement (GE), we distinguish the PTP from the standard topological phase. The partial mobility of excitations in our system is a reminiscent of fracton codes with restricted mobility, and therefore our results propose an alternative way for making such a restriction in three dimension.