arXiv subjects

Peter Huston

Publications and source records attributed to Peter Huston.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Reality and Complexity of $F$-symbols in $2+1$d Topological Phases

The $F$-symbols of an anyon theory encode the associativity of fusion and constitute some of the theory's most fundamental and, simultaneously, subtle data. Much of the subtlety lies in the gauge-dependence of the $F$-symbols. Despite their generic complexity, many braided anyon theories admit gauges in which all $F$-symbols are real, a phenomenon for which no general organising principle has been known. We identify a physical mechanism underlying this reality. For a unitary ribbon fusion category admitting an appropriate braided charge-conjugation symmetry, we show that the complex-conjugated $F$-symbols are related to the original ones by a gauge transformation. Finding a real gauge is thereby reduced to a condition on these transformations. When the charge-conjugation symmetry is suitably "flat,'' or equivalently when the associated "twisted'' Frobenius-Schur (or "generalized'' Kawanaka-Matsuyama) data respects a grading, these local transformations can be trivialised and a real gauge exists. This framework unifies a broad range of previously disparate examples, including families of Chern-Simons theories whose $F$-symbols are difficult to directly compute. Finally, we exhibit a unitary ribbon category that realizes a novel obstruction to the existence of a real gauge and therefore has inherently complex $F$-symbols.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2026

Anyons and Inherently Complex F-symbols

Anyons in $2+1$ dimensions are not only characterized by exotic braiding statistics but also by intricate fusion properties. Two anyons may fuse into multiple topological charge sectors, and associativity of fusing three anyons to produce a fixed charge sector is governed by $F$-symbols. While braiding invariants, such as the modular data, are typically complex valued, a complete description of general anyon models requires understanding the arithmetic properties of its fusion associativity data as well. The $F$-symbols for many of the most common $2+1$d topological orders, including all Abelian anyon models as well as Fibonacci and Ising anyons, can be made real valued. We show this phenomenon is not universal by exhibiting braided fusion categories whose $F$-symbols cannot be made real. We call such $F$-symbols "inherently complex." The examples we study lack a charge-conjugation symmetry and our results are therefore consistent with the converse of a statement proved in a companion work linking real $F$-symbols in braided fusion categories with the existence of a suitable charge-conjugation symmetry. We analyse the smallest-rank braided fusion categories we know of with inherently complex $F$-symbols: ${\rm Rep}(\mathbb{Z}_7\rtimes\mathbb{Z}_3)$ and ${\rm Rep}(\mathbb{Z}_5\rtimes\mathbb{Z}_4)$. Consequently, the corresponding $\mathcal Z({\rm Rep}(\mathbb{Z}_7\rtimes\mathbb{Z}_3))$ and $\mathcal Z({\rm Rep}(\mathbb{Z}_5\rtimes\mathbb{Z}_4))$ anyon models also have inherently complex $F$-symbols. Our presentation connects these examples with recent results on classifying anyons beyond modular data.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2026

Non-invertible symmetry enriched string net topological orders

We propose a definition of a non-invertible symmetry enriched topological order (NI-SETO), and we implement our definition for string net models. We do so in two ways, using full inclusions of unitary fusion categories (UFCs), as well as anyon condensation. In both cases, the NI-SETO is a relative center of UFCs. All NI-SETOs can be realized in either model, where we can use enriched UFCs to get chiral examples on the boundary of a 3D Walker-Wang model representing the anomaly. We describe several examples of NI-SETOs and compute the qualitative symmetry action on anyons and symmetry defects using tube algebra techniques.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2024

The Classification of Fusion 2-Categories

We classify (multi)fusion 2-categories in terms of braided fusion categories and group cohomological data. This classification is homotopy coherent -- we provide an equivalence between the 3-groupoid of (multi)fusion 2-categories up to monoidal equivalences and a certain 3-groupoid of commuting squares of $\mathrm{B}\mathbb{Z}/2$-equivariant spaces. Rank finiteness and Ocneanu rigidity for fusion 2-categories are immediate corollaries of our classification.

math.CT↗

arXiv2023

Enriched string-net models and their excitations

Boundaries of Walker-Wang models have been used to construct commuting projector models which realize chiral unitary modular tensor categories (UMTCs) as boundary excitations. Given a UMTC $\mathcal{A}$ representing the Witt class of an anomaly, the article [arXiv:2208.14018] gave a commuting projector model associated to an $\mathcal{A}$-enriched unitary fusion category $\mathcal{X}$ on a 2D boundary of the 3D Walker-Wang model associated to $\mathcal{A}$. That article claimed that the boundary excitations were given by the enriched center/M\"uger centralizer $Z^\mathcal{A}(\mathcal{X})$ of $\mathcal{A}$ in $Z(\mathcal{X})$. In this article, we give a rigorous treatment of this 2D boundary model, and we verify this assertion using topological quantum field theory (TQFT) techniques, including skein modules and a certain semisimple algebra whose representation category describes boundary excitations. We also use TQFT techniques to show the 3D bulk point excitations of the Walker-Wang bulk are given by the M\"uger center $Z_2(\mathcal{A})$, and we construct bulk-to-boundary hopping operators $Z_2(\mathcal{A})\to Z^{\mathcal{A}}(\mathcal{X})$ reflecting how the UMTC of boundary excitations $Z^{\mathcal{A}}(\mathcal{X})$ is symmetric-braided enriched in $Z_2(\mathcal{A})$. This article also includes a self-contained comprehensive review of the Levin-Wen string net model from a unitary tensor category viewpoint, as opposed to the skeletal $6j$ symbol viewpoint.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

A lattice model for condensation in Levin-Wen systems

Levin-Wen string-net models provide a construction of (2+1)D topologically ordered phases of matter with anyonic localized excitations described by the {Drinfeld} center of a unitary fusion category. Anyon condensation is a mechanism for phase transitions between (2+1)D topologically ordered phases. We construct an extension of Levin-Wen models in which tuning a parameter implements anyon condensation. We also describe the classification of anyons in Levin-Wen models via representation theory of the tube algebra, and use a variant of the tube algebra to classify low-energy localized excitations in the condensed phase.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2022

Unitary braided-enriched monoidal categories

Braided-enriched monoidal categories were introduced in work of Morrison-Penneys, where they were characterized using braided central functors. Recent work of Kong-Yuan-Zhang-Zheng and Dell extended this characterization to an equivalence of 2-categories. Since their introduction, braided-enriched fusion categories have been used to describe certain phenomena in topologically ordered systems in theoretical condensed matter physics. While these systems are unitary, there was previously no general notion of unitarity for enriched categories in the literature. We supply the notion of unitarity for enriched categories and braided enriched monoidal categories and extend the above 2-equivalence to the unitary setting.

math.CT↗

arXiv2022

Composing topological domain walls and anyon mobility

Topological domain walls separating 2+1 dimensional topologically ordered phases can be understood in terms of Witt equivalences between the UMTCs describing anyons in the bulk topological orders. However, this picture does not provide a framework for decomposing stacks of multiple domain walls into superselection sectors - i.e., into fundamental domain wall types that cannot be mixed by any local operators. Such a decomposition can be understood using an alternate framework in the case that the topological order is anomaly-free, in the sense that it can be realized by a commuting projector lattice model. By placing these Witt equivalences in the context of a 3-category of potentially anomalous (2+1)D topological orders, we develop a framework for computing the decomposition of parallel topological domain walls into indecomposable superselection sectors, extending the previous understanding to topological orders with non-trivial anomaly. We characterize the superselection sectors in terms of domain wall particle mobility, which we formalize in terms of tunnelling operators. The mathematical model for the 3-category of topological orders is the 3-category of fusion categories enriched over a fixed unitary modular tensor category.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

The module embedding theorem via towers of algebras

Jones and Penneys showed that a finite depth subfactor planar algebra embeds in the bipartite graph planar algebra of its principal graph, via a Markov towers of algebras approach. We relate several equivalent perspectives on the notion of module over a subfactor planar algebra, and show that a Markov tower is equivalent to a module over the Temperley-Lieb-Jones planar algebra. As a corollary, we obtain a classification of semisimple pivotal C* modules over Temperley-Lieb-Jones in terms of pointed graphs with a Frobenius-Perron vertex weighting. We then generalize the Markov towers of algebras approach to show that a finite depth subfactor planar algebra embeds in the bipartite graph planar algebra of the fusion graph of any of its cyclic modules.

math.OA↗

arXiv2016

An experimental investigation of Neumann's conjecture

We use a large census of hyperbolic 3-manifolds to experimentally investigate a conjecture of Neumann regarding the Bloch Group. We present an augmented census including, for feasible invariant trace fields, explicit manifolds (associated to that field) that appear to generate the Bloch group of that field. We also make use of Ptolemy coordinates to compute "exotic volumes" of representations, and attempt to realize these volumes as linear combinations of generator volumes. We thus present a large body of empirical support for Neumann's conjecture.

math.GT↗