TY - JOUR
T1 - Floating topological phases
AU - Devakul, Trithep
AU - Sondhi, S L
AU - Kivelson, S A
AU - Berg, Erez
N1 - Funding Information: We thank T. Senthil, J. Tranquada, and V. Calvera for helpful comments. S.A.K. was supported, in part, by NSF Grant No. DMR-1608055 at Stanford. E.B. was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under grant HQMAT (Grant No. 817799), by the U. S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF), and by CRC 183 of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. T.D. acknowledges support from the Charlotte Elizabeth Procter Fellowship at Princeton University. Publisher Copyright: © 2020 American Physical Society.
PY - 2020/9
Y1 - 2020/9
N2 - While quasi-two-dimensional (layered) materials can be highly anisotropic, their asymptotic long-distance behavior generally reflects the properties of a fully three-dimensional phase of matter. However, certain topologically ordered quantum phases with an emergent (2 + 1)-dimensional gauge symmetry can be asymptotically impervious to interplane couplings. We discuss the stability of such "floating topological phases," as well as their diagnosis by means of a nonlocal order parameter. Such a phase can produce a divergent ratio ρ ⊥ / ρ ∥ of the interlayer to intralayer resistivity as T → 0, even in an insulator where both ρ ⊥ and ρ ∥ individually diverge. Experimental observation of such a divergence would constitute proof of the existence of a topological (e.g., spin-liquid) phase.
AB - While quasi-two-dimensional (layered) materials can be highly anisotropic, their asymptotic long-distance behavior generally reflects the properties of a fully three-dimensional phase of matter. However, certain topologically ordered quantum phases with an emergent (2 + 1)-dimensional gauge symmetry can be asymptotically impervious to interplane couplings. We discuss the stability of such "floating topological phases," as well as their diagnosis by means of a nonlocal order parameter. Such a phase can produce a divergent ratio ρ ⊥ / ρ ∥ of the interlayer to intralayer resistivity as T → 0, even in an insulator where both ρ ⊥ and ρ ∥ individually diverge. Experimental observation of such a divergence would constitute proof of the existence of a topological (e.g., spin-liquid) phase.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85093362621
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevB.102.125136
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevB.102.125136
M3 - Article
SN - 2469-9950
VL - 102
JO - Physical Review B
JF - Physical Review B
IS - 12
M1 - 125136
ER -